Vanishing Towns
by The Author's Mighty Pen
Summary: Anna Smith, Air Force veteran, works as the English and Mathematics teacher at the local high school in an old coal mining town of Southern Ohio. Her town, old and on the brink of falling off the edge, gets a surprise when industrialist and secretive entrepreneur John Bates rents the room above Grantham Bar.
1. Prologue: The Places that Fade in Time

There are places that disappear. Not like an illusion or a magic trick. They simply fade into the background. Like the belief, in Hispanic culture, that those no longer remembered by the living will vanish. It's why they have an offerenda to hold the pictures for those loved ones at Day of the Dead.

Too bad they don't make those kind of things for the places people forget.

Thousands of years ago families would simply move around following the food. Towns were not a worry or a care because who needed a permanent location when the food did not stay in one place? But eventually that became an unsustainable way of life and people gave it up.

Then they started building houses and only moved when nature rallied against them or war forced them out. Pogroms and cleansings mixed with economic depressions and desperation to guide people around the globe with parents telling their children these were simply them "moving to better pastures." Towns built on top of one another, growing and swelling to make the biggest cities in the world melting pots of cultures and peoples stacked on top of one another like Jenga blocks.

That's not always the case.

It used to be that when a town had no use everyone would simply move and it would be a ghost town. They say those exist in other places, places in the west where the desert reclaimed mining towns that ran out of mine, but not really here. Here the buildings rot while children pass by them, bricks crumble while families live in the house next door, and people have to deal with the reality that life continues to end around them but they have to pretend it will all be alright.

What do you do if there's nowhere to move or there's no way to move?

The people in those towns, and the towns themselves, have no choice but to simply fade. The well-intentioned try to rebuild it, stirring up hope in better days, but slowly the light fades from their dreamer's eyes. Those who stick around are those who simply don't know how to let go or are too stubborn to realize they should.

Or who simply have nowhere else to go.

This is the town I grew up in and the town I wanted to leave to see the world. But somehow still kept me in its grip. Like a black hole that continues to suck everything around it into its destructive grasp.

The town I did not know how to leave, no matter how much I wanted to.

At least, until he came.

That was when everything changed.


	2. A Summer in Ohio

She glanced at the clock, peeking at the students with their heads bent over their desks, before calling time. Some of the students groaned, a choice few threw their pencils on their desks, and everyone else just sighed. With a barely contained smile she took her place in the front of the room.

"Now I'm sure you're all wondering why I'd be so cruel as to give you an impossible task for ten minutes." A few nods were punctuated with more verbal responses. "But, if you'd had the sense to actually read the instructions at the beginning you'd notice all you really needed was to write your name and then circle 'A' on all of it."

The class went into an uproar until she put her thumb and middle finger in her mouth to whistle shrilly at them. They quieted and she held up one of the tests. "I've been saying it for weeks and I thought this would help it sink in better. Reading instructions fully and completely is critical to doing well on your assignments in future. And, much as you'll all hate this, this is graded."

"What?" Everyone let out their collective exclamations and someone lifted their hand to the air.

"Yes, you have a question?"

"Oh, no, I was just pointing out how unfair it all is."

"We don't point like that." She stuck up her middle finger, "We cite our disagreements like this."

Everyone laughed and the bell rang. She clapped her hands together. "Alright, put your papers on my desk and I'll see you after the weekend."

They cleared out of the classroom and she let out a long breath before stacking the papers, tucking them into her bag. Someone knocked on the frame of her door and she turned to smile at the thin form of the woman taking up space in the doorway. "I'm moving as fast as I can Mary."

"Right?" Mary snorted, pointing at the disarray of the desk. "Because this is fast."

"I do have a final period, unlike yourself."

"Don't complain to me if you don't like it Anna." Mary shrugged, "Maybe you should think about switching over to AP."

"I happen to like the students who aren't so neurotic they're having dramatic breakdowns in your classroom on a weekly basis."

"It's not weekly." Anna pursed her lips and Mary shrugged. "Maybe once every two weeks."

"My point still stands." Anna finished gathering the papers on her desk, organizing the mess until she could live with what was left. "I happen to like that the worst thing that happens in my class if someone yells an inappropriate word or they fail it."

"You like that they fail?"

"I like that they're not borderline suicidal when they do." Anna adjusted the strap on her bag and put it over her shoulder. "They tell you, in the Air Force, that nothing will be more difficult than what you do there."

"I don't think they ever taught high school to a group of rednecks too far from civilization to realize the world's bigger than they are."

"Hey," Anna swatted at Mary, "As a born and bred redneck I take umbrage to that."

"You should since you couldn't stay away from this town." Mary unlocked her car, "And I was the idiot that believed you when you said, 'Hey, once we finish, we should go be teachers'."

"You always wanted to teach."

"I intended to teach at a private school somewhere in Columbus or even Cincinnati. Not forty miles east of Athens." Mary pulled her door open and leaned over it to continue talking to Anna. "I put out my CV again."

"Again? Why?"

Mary waved her hand at their surroundings, "Because eventually this'll crumble to dust and I need to be ready for that eventuality." She pointed at Anna, "You should be too."

"I couldn't imagine teaching anywhere else."

"Says the woman who told me, in no less than three bars on two continents, that you never wanted to move back here. To the 'black hole'. Your words, not mine."

"I know what I said and I know what I did to get away but…" Anna slumped, "Home is home, Mary. We can't make ourselves any different than we are."

"Unfortunately for you." Mary ducked into her car. "I still expect you for happy hour. It's Friday and we're going to enjoy it."

"Please don't tell me we're trucking to Athens to out-drink a college crowd."

"Technically you're still the college crowd." Mary winked, "Ms. 'I've almost got my doctorate'."

"I do almost have it. Another meeting with my advisor and she approves the thesis. Then I can move up to another pay bracket."

"Or you could send out your CV with mine and go somewhere." Mary leaned out her open window, her engine humming. "Ever think about applying to be a professor at the Academy?"

"Not sure they'd have me back."

"Please. Captain Anna Smith, Special Forces with her perfect record and mathematic scores?" Mary snorted, "Right, like they wouldn't be knocking down your door to get you after you publish your thesis."

"I really wish you wouldn't make a big deal out of this."

"Anna." Mary turned off her car as Anna leaned on hers. "As much as I love the rural nature of this place that means the same five men hit on me and I refuse them once a week, or the fact that I live in a shit hole just a door down from you, or even that we're getting paid shit so we're piss poor but doing good work, I've served my time with that. I'm ready for something bigger than that. You should be too."

"Maybe."

"When you get your head around the idea that the world can be your oyster instead of your snow globe, I'll tell you who's hiring." Mary turned her car back on, "Happy hour, coming or not?"

"I'll be there." Anna waved Mary out of the parking lot before tucking herself into her own car.

She pulled out of the lot and managed the narrow back roads toward town. Rusting and crumbling buildings flitted past her, landmarks of another age. Monuments to a better time.

Coming over the hill she swerved to avoid the car driving right at her with headlights momentarily blinding her. Anna managed to avoid the ditch and screeched to a halt in the gravel. Breathing hard she managed to stop the shake to her hands before getting out of her car.

"I'm so sorry." She looked across the road to see the man getting out of her car. She also noted the long scratch down the side of his car.

Turning to her own vehicle, Anna cursed. "Oh shit!"

"I'm sorry."

"I'd hope so. You sideswiped my car." Anna put a hand through her hair, shaking her head at the streak of paint and visible metal.

"It was an honest mistake."

"There are double yellow lines on this road." Anna turned, taking a step back slightly when she noticed how close he was now. He almost towered over her. Most did, the problem with being small, but something about his appearance comforted instead of menaced.

"I know."

"Then what's your honest mistake?"

"I'm not from around here."

"I got that from your accent but I'd assume you had some driving training since you rented that car." She pointed to his car across the road. "Even for a Limey like yourself, driving's not difficult."

"How'd you know I was a Limey?"

"I was stationed in Harrogate for two years."

"Explains the tip of a Yorkshire accent you've got there."

Anna folded her arms over her chest, "I liked the Yorkshire accent. Something very attractive about how they drawl their vowels."

"I don't disagree." He held up his hands and then pointed at her car. "Afraid I fell into a bit of a trance and then forgot about driving on the wrong side of the road."

"What could've entranced you?"

"It's beautiful here."

Anna raised an eyebrow then pivoted on her heel to give attention to the forested hills around them. With a shrug she retook her position. "I guess there's a bit of charm to it but I've lived here so long I don't notice it anymore."

"Time for a vacation. Give you time to miss it."

"I thought ten years in the Air Force would've done that."

"How'd you ever find a hidden gem like this?"

Anna snorted, "I was born here and it sucked me back. Welcome to Ohio, sir, the black hole of the United States."

"Why'd you say that?"

"No one ever really leaves this state. They just go away for awhile before coming right back. It's the way it works here."

"We go where we feel comfortable."

"I guess." Anna knocked on her car, "I hope you've got some insurance to cover this Mr.-?"

"Bates. John Bates." He extended a hand and Anna shook it. "And I do. I never travel without it."

"Get into a lot of scrapes then?"

"No," He laughed, "It's just good business practice."

"I bet it is." Anna opened her door again, digging in the glove box for her insurance information. "I'd better gets yours and you get mine then."

"Right." He jogged back to his car, digging around for it, and came back.

Handing over two cards, he took the one Anna gave him. She read the information on the first card and then his second. "Industrialist and entrepreneur?"

"It means I manage businesses."

"I'm an English teacher, Mr. Bates, I know the definition of entrepreneur."

"English teacher, Air Force veteran… is there anything you haven't done yet Ms.-?"

"Smith, Anna Smith, and a great many things." She finished recording the information and handed back the insurance card. "But, to impress you more at the moment-"

"Not sure you could do that."

His smile caught her off guard but Anna recovered. "I also teach Mathematics."

"English and Mathematics." He hissed through his teeth, "You can't be horribly popular with your students."

"They actually like me quite a bit thank you very much." Anna opened her door, but stopped. "If you want, I know a garage in town that'll fix your scrape and mine in an hour then you can get wherever you're going."

"How close is town?"

"Downton's only ten minutes from here."

"You're going to Downton?"

"Yeah?" Anna raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"That's where I'm headed."

"Kismet." Anna got into her car, lowering the window as she turned the key. "Follow me then Mr. Bates."

"May I propose a condition?"

"Go on."

"You allow me to buy you a drink. Call it compensation for your car."

Anna considered him a moment before nodding, "If you think you can manage it, yes."

He smiled, "Perfect. Give me a minute."

Anna watched him get into his car, signaling to her he was ready when she was. She pulled back onto the road, occasionally looking at his car in her rearview mirror. Religious but not superstitious, Anna could swear something happened to her when they met on the road. Something that had her stomach celebrating that he was right behind her. Something that got her blood up and excited her. Something about Mr. Bates that had her feeling like a teenager again.

She was not entirely sure she liked it.

Then again, she was not entirely sure she did not either.


	3. I Can Do Better Than That

They pulled their cars into the garage and Anna got out to greet the man with a grin and auburn hair shaking his head at her car.

"You really clipped it this time Ms. Smith."

"No, someone clipped me." Anna pointed to Mr. Bates, getting out his car. "A Limey for you."

"It's the roads." He shook Mr. Bates's hand, "They're on the wrong side."

"Finally, someone who understands." Mr. Bates released his grip, "Though you're not any further east than the Emerald Isle by the brogue in your voice."

"Dublin, but not the one an hour or two north of here. Tom Branson, nice to meet you and excited to fix your car."

"It's a rental so I guess it's safe to say I'm not getting the deposit back." Mr. Bates laughed a bit, "Par for the course for me really."

"Do you really damage cars?" Tom almost appeared affronted. "They're delicate creatures."

"Not cars, generally, but there's always something that goes wrong on all of my trips." Mr. Bates started ticking it off on his fingers. "There was the time the hotel caught fire and I lost half my luggage, there was the time the airline lost all my luggage and I wore the same dress shirt for six days, and then the time the conference center had a bomb threat so they shut the whole thing down and I got stranded in Shanghai for two days s you could say that I've got a bad run of all of it."

"Maybe you should travel less." Anna suggested, digging her purse from her car. "You know, settle down somewhere and not try your hand at as many adventures as you obviously do."

"Can't be helped," Mr. Bates waved his hands open, "It's the nature of the beast I've chosen to ride given the profession I have."

"And what exactly is that profession, Mr. Bates?" Anna adjusted her purse on her arm. "What could have you gallivanting across the world in such a rush to endure that kind of discomfort?"

"I'm an industrialist and an entrepreneur."

"How very intriguing." Anna smiled, "Not sure I've ever met someone who could claim those kinds of titles."

"I claim them as well as I can. But please, call me John because 'Mr. Bates' is what people who want my time or my business call me and I'd rather not think that at happy hour."

"You attend happy hour?"

"No"

"Then why propose a drink to compensate for what you did to my car?

He laughed, "Because I know the value in it. I've used happy hour to seal more than a few deals so there you go. It's a great opportunity to convince people to make daring decisions."

"As aided gloriously by our friends Jack and Bud?"

"Depends on where you are. I've been lucky enough to meet more than a few friends in various colors of amber." John opened his mouth as if to say something, paused, and then went for it. "Since I damaged your car it's more than fair that I offer to pay for the damage."

"I've insurance for that so we'll exchange that information and let your rental company bill you for the equivalent damages. But, since you mentioned happy hour and offered me a drink to compensate," Anna chewed on her lip, "You might go with me. My friend wants me to go and I actually hate it but if I've got someone a little more interesting to talk to then the locals… who I already know too much about."

"Small town politics then?"

"It's small town everything here." Anna pointed just outside the garage, "And it's a small town bar so if that doesn't put you off then I think you might want to give it a try."

"I've been to many a small town and I find them all fascinating."

"Like exhibits at the zoo?"

"No," John laughed a bit, "More like a chance to see lives we never imagined. It's all got a bit of sonder to it."

"Doesn't it just. But I also tend to sonder a bit about the animals I see in cages as the zoo."

"Don't small town people do the same thing when they decide to go visit big cities or when they gawk at monuments?"

Anna shrugged, "Having seen a bit of the world I could say that there's a lot to be said for gawking at things."

"Me too. But it doesn't mean that there's not more to the world than those things we're told to gawk at." John turned to Tom, "When will the car be fixed?"

"Have you got a pressing appointment?"

"I've got meetings tomorrow morning and then I'm driving to the airport in the evening so I'll have to return the car to get the rental back."

"I can have this done for you by the end of happy hour if you need it done by then." Tom nodded at Anna, "And your car at the same time. It's not too rough of a graze so mostly it's just paint and cosmetic."

"That's good." Anna huffed, "It's all I can do to keep myself gassing up my car before the gas light comes on."

"I'm not a person to really care much about cars really either because I see them as a way to get from point A to point B. But," John pointed toward his car, "I think there's a need to keep them running well or else they'll betray you."

"Too true. However, if we stay here too much longer we'll delay the repair of our cars and then where will we be?"

"Stranded in a small town."

Anna motioned John to follow her and they left the garage. They walked along the side of the road, keeping clear of the few cars that passed them, and Anna guided John in the direction of town. She raised her voice slightly to be heard over the sound of the road and nature.

"You mentioned that you were on the way to Downton and I'm curious as to why." Anna cringed, "If I can ask that."

"Why not?"

"Well, we've only just met and it's not normally something I ask people I've only just met unless I'm trying to find something to talk about over drinks I realize I didn't want."

"Does that mean you don't want drinks with me?"

"No, it means that I only ask this question, normally, to people I want to know more about in pretense."

"But now it's in sincere interest?"

Anna stopped, waiting for the light to turn, "I think so. But I can't be completely sure. Again, I don't know you."

"But you're curious?"

"Of course I am. An industrialist-entrepreneur came all the way to Downton to do what? Enjoy the sights of failing buildings and a crumbling town?"

"You don't speak very highly of your home."

"I don't mince words or waste them because who else can speak so sincerely about where they live but the people who live there?"

John conceded, "I've always found that people talk about their towns the same way they talk about their families. They'll rage and storm against them right to the jaws of Hell but then they'll defend those same relatives in front of Saint Peter and anyone else who might take the time to insult them."

"We're odd creatures aren't we?"

"My ex-wife thought I was quite an odd creature."

Anna pointed them toward a building with a slightly tacky neon sign. "You have a habit of giving me more questions than you're answering."

John laughed, "I do tend to avoid questions but it's got more to do with it being a bit of a secret."

"A secret?"

"Given that I'm here for a business opportunity and I don't want many people to know about it."

"You answer me with more questions." Anna went for the door but John grabbed it first, ushering her inside. "But I find it intriguing more than annoying."

"Intriguing?"

"Take it as a compliment," Anna waved over the bar at Mary. "Usually I find those things annoying but, with you I find it a little more interesting than I expected."

"Why's that?"

"As I once heard said, being mysterious is usually the last resort of people with no secrets. Usually, anyway." Anna went to take a seat, "In a town like this I find no one has any secrets at all."

"And you, do you have any secrets?"

"I don't know that I've ever thought about what kind of secrets I could possibly have." Anna took a seat next to Mary, pointing at her. "John Bates this is Mary Crawley, one of my oldest friends."

"And dearest I hope." Mary smiled at Anna before shaking John's hand. "Pleasure to meet you. Though I'm very confused as to how Anna managed to snap someone like you up from the side of the road."

"I sideswiped her car." John took his hand back and chose the seat next to Anna. "So, in a way, she did snap me up from the side of the road but I'm rather grateful for it since I got lost trying to find this place."

"It's a blip in the middle of nowhere so I could imagine how that'd be difficult." Mary swirled her drink. "What brings you here? We're about as out of place here as Route 66 is now so unless you ran into car trouble I don't see why you're here now."

"A possible business proposition."

"What? Another McDonald's at the freeway exit?"

John sniggered, "I won't say since nothing's settled and I don't want to say anything until it is."

"Good, because I hate McDonald's."

"Mary's a bit of a snob." Anna warned, digging in her purse for her card. "She thinks unless it's fine dining then there's no point."

"That's a long haul from here for something grander than an Olive Garden so I tend to drive my husband a little mad." Mary smiled, "Ah, here he is."

All heads turned to see a blonde-headed man enter the bar. He smiled and waved at them before making his way through the chairs toward them. Sitting down he blew out a belabored breath.

"Traffic was mad."

"I hear a touch of home in your voice." John noted, extending a hand for the man to shake. "John Bates, pleased to meet you."

"Matthew Crawley and I'm from Manchester." Matthew nodded at Anna before smiling at Mary. "I met Mary while she and Anna served in the Air Force at the base in Leeds."

"And followed her here." Anna grinned, "Love is a wonderful thing I think."

"It must be since it's an hour and a half drive from here to Columbus." Matthew turned to Anna, "Have you ordered a drink yet? Mary obviously has but I don't know what I want yet. Do you?"

"I might go for… I don't know. Nothing too strong because I do have to drive myself home but I'll go with something a little more simple."

"They've got home brew."

"No," Anna made a face, "Get Guinness."

"Okay," Matthew stood, pausing, "And you, John?"

"I'll do with water if you don't mind. Or maybe something fizzy."

"Alright." Matthew left the table and Mary raised an eyebrow at John.

"Not a drinker?"

"Not in some time."

"Got a sobriety chip?"

"Mary!" Anna looked at her and Mary held up her hands.

"What? It's a fair question."

"It's none of your business." Anna chided but John put a hand forward.

"I'm a stranger and it's not unusual for a bit of curiosity but no, I don't have a sobriety chip but I've been sober a long time and I intend to stay that way. For my sake as much as anyone else's."

"That's daring. I don't know if I could do it. I don't have the drive."

"That's not true." Anna snorted, "I think there's a great many things you could do but it's not one of those things you believe you should drive yourself to do."

"Not until forced, that is for sure."

Matthew returned with the drinks and Anna sipped at hers. He held his glass up, "A toast?"

"To what exactly?" Mary brought her drink up, the little left there.

"To Downton and the opportunities here." John took his glass to meet Matthew and Mary's.

Mary snorted, "I'm sure we can do better than that."

"I think it's enough." Anna glared at Mary, "Express gratitude where it is needed. We've got jobs, we've got homes, and we've got ourselves the lives we have now. There's nothing else to be more grateful for than this."

"How poetic." John smiled at Anna, "And I'll drink to that."


	4. Getting to Know You

Anna waved Mary and Matthew away, Mary leaning on Matthew more than actually walking, and laughed to herself. She sighed and started walking toward the garage, rubbing at the back of her neck. A tap on her shoulder had her turning around to smile at John.

"I hope you don't mind me joining you. I'm afraid I'd get lost on the way to the garage on my own."

"It's not that big of a town but I'll accept your offer, as obvious as it is."

John ducked his head, attitude a bit bashful, "I'll bet you don't take too kindly to being propositioned for romantic strolls by relative strangers do you?"

"I was once offered sex by a tour guide in Rome so I'd say you're rather simple request is far and above what I expected from a Friday happy hour." Anna jerked her head in the direct of the garage. "You're more than welcome to walk with me."

"It gives me a chance to get to know you a little better."

"There's not much else to know." Anna opened her arms toward their surroundings. "I grew up here until I joined the Air Force. Then I traveled for ten years before coming right back here."

"Bit of a black hole is it?"

"Most places are." Anna kicked at a pebble sticking out of the ground-in gravel. "We come back to those places that mean something to us."

"Business, pleasure, or family?" Anna frowned and John explained, "When you came back was it originally for business, pleasure, or family?"

"Family." Anna chewed at the inside of her cheek, "My mum got sick and needed me to take care of her."

"What about your father?"

"He worked in in the mining industry until he died in an accident."

"I'm so sorry."

"He's been dead a long time so I don't think about it too often." Anna took a deep breath, "It still hurts, as it should I guess, but it wasn't all bad."

"How'd you mean?"

"The settlement from the company for wrongful death got my sister and I into university." Anna laughed, "It's funny, my dad always wanted us to get an education and he enabled it. Always said he'd do all he could but I didn't think he'd have to give so much to see it happen."

"Is he why you joined the Air Force?"

Anna nodded, "Part of it. He served in the Gulf War for the RAF actually."

"Then you really should have that accent." John teased, "It's not just show."

"No, my father had one of the strongest Yorkshire accents I've ever heard. Even after living in here for years."

"What brought him here?"

"His job."

"Right," John snapped his fingers, "The mining industry, you said."

"And what about you?" Anna nudged him with her body, stopped at a light. "What secrets lie under the layers of Mr. John Bates?"

John whistled, "More than this walk or a lie down on a therapist's couch will really cure."

"Then what would you tell me?"

"My mother's grandparents were Keiths, from Scotland, but she had one of the thickest Irish accents you could ever get in East London."

"Is that where you grew up?"

"Until I joined the Army." John slapped his right leg, "It's why there's a large metal pin in here that inevitably sets off more metal detectors than I can count."

"Was it worth it?"

John stopped, "How'd you mean?"

"I've met more than a few people who've give limbs for their country. Had a few people I knew well who gave life for it." Anna faced him, "For some it was their greatest sacrifice and greatest achievement. They saw it as an honor and trial but nothing else. Some saw it as a poor return on investment. I'm just curious where you stand."

"I imagine quite poorly on one leg." John joked and Anna laughed with him. "But, to answer your question honestly, I went through the stages of grief for what I could no longer do."

"Such as?"

"Serve my country." John knocked his knuckles against his leg, "The Army doesn't tend to take well to the idea that your leg could set off a magnetized land mine."

"Does it stop much else?"

Anna watched John's face contort a moment, "Not where it counts with women, if I'm being honest."

"Be grateful I'm used to vulgar jokes." Anna grinned, "The side effect of working with teenagers is there's no end to 'that's what she said' jokes and they've grown on me somewhat."

"I could see how those would become addicting. Not my fare, mind you, since I'm a little too British but I could see it."

"Could I see it?" Anna bit her lip to stifle her laugh as John frowned then pointed at her.

"That's what she said?"

"That's what she said." Anna affirmed, "And I like British humor too."

"Any favorites?"

"Most people know _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_ , and I never say no to a good John Cleese, but I'm absolutely besotted with _Wild Target_ so I guess my tastes aren't always as refined as they could be."

"The same could be said of all of us." John heaved a sigh as they reached the garage, "I guess this is where we part."

"For now." Anna smiled at him, "Unless you've got meetings tomorrow I'd say you've probably got a free Saturday to fill."

"I've got some time tomorrow."

"Can I ask if the rest of your time is taken up with the mysterious business that brought you to our redneck of the woods?"

"It does but," John chewed on his lip, as if rolling something around in his mind, "Maybe you're like to act as my tour guide?"

"Is this the moment you admit to me you're actually secretly going to buy out the town to steamroll it for condos or a theme park or something?"

"Nothing that nefarious."

"But also nothing you'll tell me now?"

John shook his head, "Nothing's final and I don't like to count chickens before they hatch."

"It's a good practice." Anna pulled out her mobile, "If you're wiling then, let's exchange numbers and you can call me any time after ten tomorrow morning."

"After ten?"

"I sleep in on the weekends."

John went to grab his mobile but stopped, "I've got another proposal."

"Oh?"

"Let me take you to dinner."

Anna set her teeth, "I don't think-"

"If you think it's too forward then I'm sorry-"

"John," Anna stopped his immediate backtrack. "That's not the problem."

"What is it?"

"If we have dinner in this town then it's all I'll hear about from my students Monday because they all work tonight and those who don't will be at those places."

"Small town problems?"

"We've all got them."

"Then," John checked the time, "You're not opposed to a drive are you?"

"Where?"

"You're the one who lives here. Where is anything good?"

"What a loaded question." Anna sucked in her cheeks a moment before nodding. "If you're up for a forty minute drive then there's a good place in Lancaster."

"You'll have to drive."

"Good. I prefer to have control." Anna sniggered at John's face, "I can see the wheels turning in your head right now."

"When you give a man something like that shouldn't they be?"

Anna paused, "That's what he said."


	5. A Lovely Night

Anna dropped her napkin, "Probably the best pizza I've ever had here."

"Glad you liked it since you picked it." John eyed the people around them, "Recognize anyone?"

"I may be from a small town but the state's pretty big." Anna snapped him with her napkin and he barely deflected it. "We're not all so inbred that we never travel outside our town."

"Then could I suggest a very indiscreet proposal?" John pulled out his mobile to check the time, "Mind getting a hotel?"

"Why?"

"It's late and I don't want to drive forty minutes back to Downton because, and I don't know about you, but I'm bushed."

"How scandalous." Anna feigned shock, "I don't usually sleep with someone on the first date."

"I don't either," John laughed, "But it's late and I'd hate to force you to drive back at this hour."

"That's noble of you, it truly is, but I always prefer my own bed." Anna stood, pulling bills from her wallet, "Though if you wanted a go at my couch it'll be better than whatever hotel you booked yourself into in town."

"Why?"

"Because unless it was Mrs. Patmore's bed and breakfasts you'll be sleeping on a thin mattress with a seventy percent chance of bedbugs." Anna left the cash, "Your choice."

"Won't everyone wonder who the strange man leaving your house tomorrow morning is?"

"Maybe." Anna winked at him, "But I've got a long driveway and I'm pretty sure no one goes out that far on a Saturday morning."

"How comfortable's your couch?" John stood as well, taking the box of leftover pizza from the table, "I've got a very finicky back and one wrong move on the wrong surface and I'll be in a brace for a month."

"Must be horrible being so old." Anna teased, opening her car door and popping the automatic locks for him to join her. "I can't imagine what it's like being as old as you are."

"Very funny."

Anna turned the key, "I thought so."

They managed all the town streets to get back to the motorway, heading southeast. Anna settled comfortably into the drive, smiling to herself when she caught John's rapid blinks. Her laughter startled him a bit and she briefly turned to catch his half grin before returning it with one of her own.

"What's got you smiling to yourself over there Ms. Smith?"

"You're trying so hard to stay awake and I don't know why you just don't fall asleep."

"I'd be a poor passenger if I did that."

"I don't mind." Anna waved a hand at him. "Honestly, if you were driving and I looked like I just managed twenty-four hours with no sleep I'd crash too."

"Thanks very much for not pointing out how shit I looked earlier."

"I thought it was rude before a date to comment on their appearance."

"Is that what that was?" John's face split into an even wider grin.

Anna snorted, "You're the one who asked me to dinner so you tell me, was it a date or not?"

"I'd say it was. That was what I intended it to be."

"Then we're settled, it was a date and now I can tell you that you loo like you need duct tape to keep your eyelids from drooping…" Anna cringed, "Or any of my fifth period seniors."

"What grades do you teach again?"

"I teach them all. I used to opt for an honors class-" Anna paused, "You do know how the American school system works yes?"

"I'm familiar with the fake version they show on TV and in their high school drama movies."

"Discount all the singing, the fact that no one teaches, and the spacious classrooms with less than fifteen students and you're about there." Anna merged into the other lane, "High school starts at the ninth grade and goes through the twelfth. That's usually ages fourteen to eighteen but some are thirteen to seventeen since the cut off for birthdays is September."

"Sounds complicated."

"We're the country that still follows the customary system." Anna signaled and took the exit. "Most students are in standard classes while smaller percentages are in remedial classes, special education, or honors coursework which occasionally crosses over with advanced placement classes."

"And what are those?"

"They're like college prep classes. If they get a high enough score on the test for those at the end of the year most universities and colleges in the States will take it as equivalent to beginning credit coursework." Anna shrugged, "It's a way to get ahead."

"So they're the smart ones?"

"If they know what's good for them students will challenge themselves but most of the ones I have are content to get into community colleges or state schools nearby." Anna sighed, "This state is a black hole. It sucks everyone back to it. Eighty percent of students graduating this year in this state will state in state schools. When they graduate there they'll get jobs in-state and then marry, in state, and then the cycle repeats."

"Do you disagree with that?"

Anna see-sawed her shoulders. "I don't know because I can't really tell them to run away and never come back since I'm back here after having left."

"But you left."

"I'm not sure we ever really leave a place. It's more like we get dragged back to it." Anna snorted, "The disgusting analogy, in this case, would be that you get something under your skin and it claws at you."

"That's what this state did?"

"It's how it ended up. People are more likely to stay close to home and family for convenience purposes. Very few people'll toss themselves hither and yon and risk a holiday alone."

"Did you?"

"I was lucky I made friends with Mary. I never had a lonely holiday in the Air Force."

"What about afterward?"

"I dragged Mary here and the cycle repeats." Anna stopped at a light, turning to take them deeper into the backroads. "I came back here for my mum initially."

"You mentioned that earlier."

"But then, when she wasn't getting better, I stayed. When she died I stayed because I'd built a life here. And when I realized I grew right back into my place I didn't know if I could leave."

"Would you want to?"

"Mary's been sending out her CV to as many places as she can find. If she can even move to Columbus she thinks she'll get a better shake with some schools there."

"Is it better?"

Anna shrugged, "At the end of the day schools really aren't that much different wherever you go. The kids are assholes, the students never perform the way the government wants them to, and you have coworkers who keep paper chains for all the major holidays. You're always losing your supplies, you have to play parent-teacher-psychologist-therapist-prison warden all in the same day- sometimes the same hour- and you bring home a pittance that gets sliced by taxes and union dues you're not even sure you want to pay."

"After all that I wonder why anyone does it."

"Because once, in a long while, you find that one student you touch to the core or there's a student who fought the good fight all the way to the bitter end and finally mastered something difficult or you realize you're the only person who ever believed in someone and they're just chuffed that they finally mean something to someone." Anna smiled to herself, "You never get over that kind of success anywhere else."

"I guess, in the end, the best question is whether or not it fulfills you."

"It staves off boredom and keeps me humble."

John faced her, turning toward her in his seat as they reached a four-way stop in the middle of the backwoods. "Does it fulfill you?"

Anna turned to him, noting the absolutely deserted roadways, before facing him. "It does. I couldn't really see myself doing anything else."

"Then that's all that matters." John settled back in his seat, "John Lennon once said that when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up he said, 'happy' and the teacher reprimanded him for not understanding the question."

"I know this," Anna snapped her fingers, "He said she didn't understand life."

John nodded, "When I was young my mother always asked me what problem I wanted to solve. Never what I wanted to be or what I wanted to do but what problem did I want to solve."

"Did you find it?"

"I found hundreds of them." John waved the question away, "The sad part about life is we can't split ourselves into a million version to do everything we always dreamed we could do when we were younger."

"I think that'd be rather frustrating."

"How'd you mean?"

"Then you'd be jealous of yourself." Anna opened a hand, "It's like the idea of identical twins. I've had a couple sets in the last few years and I've seen how different they are. Most, at first blush, think of them like they're the same but these are two distinct, and separate beings."

"I'm following."

"In your scenario we're looking at our personal iterations, in the millions or whatever, and wondering why we couldn't do what they did since we're the same and we'd believe that lie."

"Why's it a lie?"

"Did you ever watch _Orphan Black_?"

"I got through the first episode but one of the characters looked a little too much like my ex-wife so I really couldn't bear that."

"If you'd watched further you'd see that other than Tatiana Maslany's incredible acting ability, it poses the wonderful question about nature versus nurture."

"With the clones?"

"Yes. Each clone has all the visual similarities to their sisters but each is distinct and unique. Each, raised in secret from the others, formed their own personalities, their own desires, and their own selves. They're complete unique beings. Yet we're doomed to compare them because, to our minds, they should be exactly alike because they're the same person."

"But they're not?"

"No," Anna shook her head. "I'd rather dream about what other versions of me would've done than be confronted with what they did because then I'd compare myself to a reality instead of a fantasy and the fantasy always fades under the weight of the realization about our own successes."

John laughed, "You're one of the deepest thinkers I've ever met."

"I'll take that compliment and return one to you with the comment that I think you're one of the most patient passengers I've had endure my thoughts train."

"It's been an enjoyable ride so I won't say no to another jaunt if you're feeling up to it."

Anna pulled her car down a little hill and then through a few switchbacks before parking in front of a refurbished farmhouse. "Maybe tomorrow, when I take you to get your car and we take a little tour of the area. Tonight I think we could both use some sleep."

She got out of the car, waiting for John to collect his rollerbag and briefcase from the back seat, before taking him up the backstairs to the porch. It took her a moment to find the right key in the dark but had the door open a moment later to let John into the house before locking the door behind them. Her fingers found the switch and her kitchen, with the large island, came into view before John ran into it with his hip.

"Careful, it's granite." Anna led him through the kitchen to the hallway, opening a door and flipping the light on to show him the room. "And this is your room."

"When you said couch I thought you were being serious."

"I was until I realized that'd be poor hospitality."

"You paid for dinner."

"I picked the restaurant." Anna pointed to the corner, "There's an outlet there for your phone and computer but I don't have a converter so-"

"I've got a couple." John put his bag on the bed, unzipping it, "I don't travel without at least three because I'm always bound to lose one."

"Reality of travel." Anna motioned to him, stepping into the hall to open the door right across from his. "This is the bathroom."

"Good thing you've got one because the alternative is less appealing."

"I've an outhouse too. Somewhere in the back of the property." Anna walked to the shower, pulling the curtain slightly to demonstrate how to work it. "Pull out to get the water going and then up here to send it through the shower head."

"How long until it's warm?"

"Depends on whether or not the water heater decides to act up." Anna flipped them off, drying her hand."

"That happen often?"

"We're working off an electronically pumped well, Mr. Bates." Anna shrugged, "We cater to it, not the other way around."

"And you live in this place all by yourself?"

"It was my mother's and now it's mine." Anna clasped her hands together, "If I follow in Mary's footsteps then I'll put it up for sale at the end of the school year."

"You'd do that?"

"I've already sold off most of the back property to the farm next door when they were bought out by a larger group and some of the flatter ground I got a good deal on from some developers."

"And the rest of it?"

"I won't sell anything wooded or any of the creek since I'm pretty partial to walking in nature when I can get myself away from the papers I've got to mark." Anna led them back to the hall. "But mostly I just stare out at it through those big windows next to the fireplace in the living room and I don't want my view ruined by ugly condominiums or cows."

"Not a fan of neighbors or farms?"

"I'm not a fan of people outside of school."

"Ah," John snapped his fingers, "You're an introvert."

"All the best English teachers are." Anna tried to hide a yawn, sending them both to giggles. "Sorry, I guess we both need sleep and I'm keeping you up, prattling on about my house."

"I don't mind." John lowered his voice and Anna felt a catch in the back of her throat. "I could listen to you read the phone book and I'd be fine with it."

"No one has phone books anymore."

"Well… the dictionary then."

"No on-"

John stopped her, raising his hand. "Doesn't matter, I enjoy listening to you and thank you for letting me stay here."

"You're welcome and thank you for listening." Anna blushed a little, "It's been awhile since I've had anyone who really wanted to listen to me."

"More fools them."

"You forget, I work with teenagers."

"Point still stands." John nodded to her, "Goodnight Ms. Smith."

"Goodnight Mr. Bates."

Anna left the hallway, risking a look back at him on her way up the open stairs to the master bedroom. As she got ready for bed she could hear him below her and smiled. Tucking herself in she listened for the comforting sounds of someone else in a house that sat empty for far too long.


	6. One Short Day

Anna sniffed herself awake. The fragrance of a wafting scent, tinged with the familiarity of something made with flour and sugar, mixed with the sound of popping fat and sizzling meat. She sat up, frowning as the fog of sleep clung desperately to her brain. With a shake of her head she pushed her covers aside, pulling at her pajama shirt from where it rode up when she slept, and pattered downstairs in her long sleep trousers.

She reached the bottom of the stairs, holding her arms cross over her chest to hide the fact she left her bra upstairs, and let her mouth drop in surprise. John stood in her kitchen, manning her two skillets while wearing one of her aprons. The cuffs on his sleeves were rolled back and his hair still glinting with dampness. One drop worked its way to the back of his head when he raked his hair out of his eyes.

Her eyes followed the trail of water, working from one hair to the next before dropping onto his collar. It spread there, a spot forming. She took a deep breath before clearing her throat, as if it would shake her out of her predatory study of him, and smiled as he turned in surprise.

"I'm sorry, I hope I didn't wake you."

"Not sure how anyone sleeps through the smell of American bacon popping on the stove." Anna risked a step closer, pointing to her skillets. "I'm surprised you didn't have to scrub the cobwebs off those."

John laughed, "They weren't easy to find and I'll bet they're rarely used but they're in good condition."

"Came with the house." Anna stopped herself, "My mother liked to cook."

"You don't?"

"I don't trust myself with open flames unless they're on the other end of a flamethrower or a lighter."

"Flamethrower?" John flipped a few of the pancakes. "When would you have handled a flamethrower?"

"There was a twenty-fifth birthday party with some events that will remain a mystery until I know you can be trusted." Anna filled the coffee maker with water, starting the machine before digging in a cupboard for a mug.

"You don't know if I can be trusted yet?"

Anna rested her elbows on the island, leaning toward John as he labored over the skillets. "I don't know. There were some rules broken that would've gotten Mary and I some serious demerits, Maybe even discharged from the Air Force."

"Then we should keep it to ourselves." John winked at her, putting the finished pancakes on a plate. "Do you have butter?"

"I do." Anna leaned over, grabbing the butter dish from the top of the bread cupboard. "And, to assuage any fears, I do believe in real butter."

"I'll assume then that you're not a vegan."

"You found bacon in my refrigerator, John," Anna moved around him for a drawer, pulling a knife out, "It's safe to say I've not got any inhibitions about food."

"That's good because breakfast food might be the limit of my cooking experience so I hope you're not disappointed."

"A man is in my house cooking me breakfast." Anna worked past him but he turned, stopping her. She met his eyes, waving the knife in front of his face, "I won't be anything but grateful."

"That's good because I need to express my gratitude."

"And how would you do that?"

He paused, "I would like to kiss you but I wouldn't want to be presumptuous."

"I don't think that'd be too presumptuous."

"It wouldn't?"

"Not at all." Anna waited, "Will you?"

John cupped Anna's face in his hands, stroking over her cheekbones with his thumbs before leaning down. Time slowed for her and Anna lost herself in the feel of John surrounding her. His lips gently touched hers, pulling slowly for a moment.

Her fingers clamped around the knife, making sure she would not drop it, and fumbled behind her to let it clatter on the counter. The sound broke their kiss and Anna gasped. "Sorry."

"I'm not."

"No," Anna shook her head, "About breaking the kiss."

"Shall we try again then?"

"Please." Anna used both hands to grab John's neck, pulling him to her as her body arched toward him.

His lips were no less soft this time but slightly more forceful. Her hands gripped his neck tightly, keeping herself steady on her tiptoes as he pushed her back to the counter. In a swift move he lifted her to sit on it, balancing their heights to give both of them the leverage they wanted to continue.

Anna lost herself in the feel of his mouth, enjoying the hint of batter on his lips, and worked her legs around his waist to bring herself closer to him. John risked a hand from her face to her waist, holding her at two points when the hand at her face slipped around to cradle the back of her head. She ran her tongue along his lips, seeking out the taste there, and he opened his mouth almost in surprise.

Pressing her advantage Anna felt out the inside of his mouth. His response had her moaning when he used his hand at her waist to pull her closer to him, grinding unconsciously against her. Anna responded, opening her legs wider to the hold her knees at his hips and keep him where she could enjoy his form. John's hand at her waist slipped up and Anna gasped into their kiss when his fingers brushed the underside of her unprotected breast.

Just as she went to take more of his mouth the blaring klaxon of her kitchen fire alarm disturbed them. John turned in a hurry, taking the flaming skillets off heat and turning down the burners. Anna jumped off the counter, popping the battery out of the smoke alarm and throwing her kitchen door open to let out the smoke. With a pivot she opened the cupboard under her skin and tossed the box of sodium bicarbonate to John, who dumped a liberal helping over the flaming bacon to put out the grease fire.

The smoke cleared and Anna walked back to John. Both stood there a moment before laughing. Anna went to take the box back but it slipped in her hand and spurted white powder over her face. She coughed, shaking her head to clear her eyes, and a towel pressed to her face.

"Hold still."

"It's alright." Anna tried to pull away but he held her steady.

"It's fine, I can help."

"John it's-" The box slipped again, this time covering John with white powder that stuck to his damp hair. Anna spluttered out a laugh, setting the box on the island, and taking the towel from his hands. "I think we could both use a shower and then breakfast somewhere we can't burn it."

"I was all ready to impress you."

"Oh John," Anna sighed, pressing a finger to his lips to stop further arguments. "You already impressed me."

"You did mention a shower." His eyes twinkled and, for a moment, Anna could see them entwined in her master bath shower, hot water pouring over them as he drove into her against the tiles.

But she shook herself, "If that opportunity ever presents itself, John, I'll agree to the invitation but for the moment I think we should go one at a time. We've got a day ahead of us and I wouldn't want to get sidetracked."

"Sidetracked how?"

"If I took a shower with you, John," Anna held his gaze, "We wouldn't leave this house until I ran out of food."

"Better get going then."

"Yes, we'd better." Anna waved a hand at the mess on the counter. "I'll take care of this."

"But it's my-" John tried to argue but Anna shook her head.

"You cooked it-"

"Tried to."

"And so I'll clean. It's fair."

"If you insist, Ms. Smith." John bowed his white-dusted head to her and Anna snickered.

"I do. Now go get yourself another shower and then we'll go for breakfast. Mrs. Patmore's Bed and Breakfast is famous for them."

"Wouldn't we need a bed for the breakfast?"

"No." Anna pushed John toward the hall, "Get going."

After wiping the rest of the white powder off her skin, Anna scraped the burned mess into the sink before taking a wet rag to the surfaces covered in white powder. When she went to start on the floor when she heard John clear his throat. Biting her lip, Anna stood slowly before turning to look at him.

"Did you enjoy it?"

"The shower?"

"The view of my ass." Anna tossed the rag in the sink, "If you want to finish this there's a mop in the thin cupboard over by the refrigerator."

Anna just about slipped past John when he brushed his fingers over the exposed skin on her arm. She stopped, her breath catching in her throat. Theirs eyes met and John skimmed his other hand over her jaw. "Yes."

"Yes you'll help?"

"Yes I enjoyed the view of your ass."

With a grin Anna kissed him, pulling herself closer to him. John crowded her to the wall, lifting her so her legs wrapped around his waist. Anna slanted her mouth over his and moaned when John's hands at her hips sipped under her pajama shirt to send burning trails along her hips.

Just as Anna went to lunge her tongue into his mouth again someone's stomach rumbled. Both stopped, pausing a moment to assess their position, and then broke into laughter. John rested his head against hers, sighing.

"It's always something isn't it?"

"I'm sure I'll appreciate that sentiment more once we've actually had more time to get to know one another." Anna unhooked her legs, stepping gingerly to the ground as John took his own pace backward. "Give me some time to shower and then we'll have some of the best breakfast food you've ever tasted in your life."

"Last night I had the best pizza and this morning I'll have the best breakfast." John leaned over the counter, watching Anna ascend her exposed stairs. "Next you'll have me believing you're only fattening me up."

"Only so you can't run away." Anna teased, disappearing from his view.

She could hear him, finishing cleaning up the mess they made of breakfast, as she gathered her things to get ready. Stripping her clothes in her master bath, running the water so it steamed up the glass, Anna thought about John's earlier invitation. Her fingers traced her lips, the tingling only intensifying when the beat of the water in her shower added to the sensations running through her body.

For a moment, with the heat in the bathroom rising and the temptation of the water around her, Anna thought about resolving the tension in her body. But time was of the essence and she focused on the man waiting for her downstairs as she squeezed enough body wash onto her loofah to choke a horse. After that the shower was one of the fastest she ever took.

With hair still dripping slightly, but wrapped up in a messy bun on her head, Anna hurried down the stairs to join John. She caught sight of him reading the spines on the bookcase that lined the wall by her front door. Anna pulled her jacket in her arms, clearing her throat to alert him to her presence.

John beamed at her, straightening, "Now who's staring at whose ass?"

"I won't deny taking a second to admire it but I'm more curious what you think of my books."

"You've got an eclectic collection." John tapped a few of the books. "Practically everything Malcolm Gladwell's ever written right next to your hard cover copies of _Harry Potter_."

"One can never be without too much inspiration."

"Inspiration?"

"I teach English to high school students." Anna worked an arm through her jacket, pulling it up her arm. "You never know what inspires students."

"I'm just surprised."

"Happy surprised or disappointed surprised?" Anna allowed John past her as they headed toward the door in her kitchen.

"Happy surprised. I'd fear you only had sappy romances or enough YA fiction to strangle any hope of good literature."

"I'll have you know that the child-like amazement of something as simple as _Harry Potter_ is actually a crucial foundation for students to comprehend something as complicated as _Macbeth_."

"Or the other way round?" Anna stopped as John straightened the collar on his jacket. "I find _Macbeth_ easier to understand than _Harry Potter_ sometimes."

"Really?"

"All that teen angst," John shuddered, "My years in puberty weren't that dramatic."

"You weren't being chased by a dark wizard and his servants."

"True but I've also never listened to three witches who then led me on a murder spree to steal the throne of Scotland."

"May that ever be true." Anna locked the door, going to her car and popping the locks. "Where are you looking in town?"

"What?" John stopped, hand on the door handle as Anna propped herself on the hood of her car a moment.

"You said you're here for a business venture. I'm curious if it's got anything to do with property investment."

"It might've done." John let go of the handle, "I don't want to put either of us in a spot if this gets out and you think I betrayed your trust."

"I let you stay in my house last night." Anna frowned, "Did I make a mistake with that?"

"No," John hurried to put a hand up, as if to stop her worries with a physical motion. "I'm here to buy out the town."

"Buy out Downton?"

"My friend, Robert Crawley, had an idea for an investment here some time ago. I investigated it and realized this town is perfect for what I'm offering."

"Which is what?"

"Attention." John waved a hand at the space around them. "There's too much natural beauty here to ignore and I want to take advantage of it."

"So you'll buy us all out?"

"I'm a business man so I'm here to build industry." John paused, "I didn't mention anything last night because none of it is finalized. Those meetings are all Monday and then I fly back to Dublin to work from my end to get my factories there to work toward building up the ones here."

"You're taking over the old factories?"

"Most'll just be demolished since the restructuring work it'd cost more than we've got to spend. But the older buildings, the historical ones, we're renovating and turning into new businesses. Our shipping centers, our regional offices, and eventually the hub of our American Midwest division." John took a breath, "We've even discussed a small airfield we hope to grow into a larger airport."

Anna whistled, crossing her arms over her chest, "You don't know how to dream small, do you?"

"I don't go into anything without enough fore planning to know it's a safe investment. I had our research teams running probabilities and calculations and prospective marketing campaigns for almost two years before I took a single meeting." John ran a hand through his hair to get an errant lock out of his eyes. "I don't rush into anything and I don't make bad decisions."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

Anna shrugged, "Are you moving yourself here?"

"Depends. For the moment part of the reason for the move is tax credit and effective transport of goods but my company and my other business interests are international. Settling here isn't smart for logistical reasons but maybe in the future, when we-"

"Have your airfield?" Anna jangled the keys in her hand a moment, "But otherwise you're intending to return to Dublin and I'm sure you don't mean the one north of here."

"I mean Dublin, Ireland."

Anna sucked the inside of her cheeks and opened her door, "Then we'd better make sure you see as much of the town as possible. It'll have to live a long time in your memory, won't it?"

"You're alright with this?"

"With what?" Anna buckled herself into her seat as John hurried into the car.

"With the fact that I'm leaving in a few days."

"I didn't expect you to stay forever." Anna adjusted the mirror, putting the car into reverse and turning around to drive out her driveway. "It'd be insane to expect you'd immediately make a life here when you came in a rental car with one case and no checked bags."

"They delay customs."

"I know." Anna waited at the end of her driveway, watching the deserted stretch of road to confirm no one was coming before peeling onto the main road. "I've traveled quite a bit myself."

"Is that why you're alright with this?"

"Probably." Anna guided the car around the bends and rolling hills toward town. "I once had a week of leave and went to Greece. I spent three of those days wrapped around a lovely Greek man whose full name I can't even pronounce."

"Greek?"

Anna shrugged, "It was luck."

"He got lucky."

"Yes he did." Anna gave herself a satisfied smile before looking over at John. "If there's nothing else between us but these few days I'd like to use them appropriately. There's too much to be gained by getting to know you."

"You can pronounce my name."

"That I can." Anna waited at a stop sign, turning to John. "I'm not offering three days of sex."

"Too bad."

"But I can offer we see where we go in three days and if we'd want to take the time and trouble to do what's necessary to keep a candle burning after you leave this little backwater."

"Keep saying things like that and I'm doomed not to leave for my flight on Tuesday."

"We couldn't have that, John." Anna gunned the gas, taking the hill at speed, "We need you to come back and save our dying town."

"Is that all?"

"Well," Anna ran her tongue over the bottom of her top teeth, "I wouldn't mind giving you something else to miss when you come back. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder."

"I don't think I'd need distance for that."

"I don't either but that's what we'll get." Anna sped around a turn, "We're going to give you a lovely day here so you know you made the right decision."

"One short day?"

"Of many more."


	7. Poker Face

Anna waved to the store clerk, sorting through the candy in her bag before handing it to John. "Because you can't visit our town without getting some of his homemade hard candy."

"Homemade?" John examined the haul, removing one. "I don't think he'll much care for the factory we're moving into town."

"Candy?"

"One of them." John took pace beside Anna on the pavement. "We've got a line of different businesses. I thought we'd start with our indulgences line."

"Indulgences?" Anna laughed, "Like the Catholic Church?"

"They'd probably call them a sin." John chuckled with her, sucking on the candy. "We've got our brewery, our distillery, and our bottling plant for our alcohols. Then there's our candy, confections, and chocolate lines. Group those with our adult erotica and we've got it all."

Anna choked, "Excuse me?"

"I'm kidding. It's alcohol, candy, and cards."

"So you're the patron saint of Valentine's Day and anniversaries?"

"Something like that." He shrugged, "My father died when I was young and I remember my mother always saying that she wished someone looked out for those left behind on Valentine's Day."

"That's a beautiful sentiment."

John nodded, "I guess since everyone looks out for themselves on St. Patty's Day we're all alright."

Anna shoved him with her elbow, digging in her bag for a handful of wrapped chocolates. "Why not involve them in your business."

"How'd you mean?"

"Well," Anna unwrapped one, tucking the wrapper safely in her purse, "You've got your Willy Wonka factory all set to go but what about your artisan line?"

"Like that?" John craned back to point over his shoulder and Anna nodded.

"With the crazes about Veganism and Organic what people really want is homegrown comforts. Mashed potatoes and macaroni that just drips cheese."

"I think you're a little too Midwestern now if you're talking about mashed potatoes as your comfort food." John smiled at her, pulling the wrapper off another hard candy with his teeth before sucking it to the back of his cheek. "Comforts of home for me are hearty stews and a nice draft aged to a golden brown."

"Then align the comforts appropriately but realize that what people want, more than the mass produced and cheap stuff to jam down a stocking or into a paper valentine are those things they turn to when they're feeling down." Anna stopped them at a light, "Think about it. Who doesn't like the Cadbury eggs?"

"No one I know."

"My point exactly."

"You do know they've got a factory."

"And yet it still tastes like home." Anna bit into the chocolate in her hand, grinning at him. "Think about it."

"Since our intention is to add to the town and not destroy what you've got here I will." John dipped his head toward her, "What else about your town is just so lovely that you can't wait to show me?"

Anna pointed up the street, "That."

John gawked, "Where'd you get something that big and old?"

"I think you forget they founded this state in 1803." She pulled him across the street and looked up at the building before them with a sigh. "They built this place in 1914 in the Tudor-Gothic style and the family donated it to the town."

"It's so huge." John started walking around the edge, "What would you ever do with it?"

"They've got a stage in there so local productions perform here. You can also rent the space for weddings, receptions, parties and the like. And, recently," Anna brightened, "The library system took it under their wing and it still operates as a library… albeit not the independent entity it was before."

"Someone just gifted this to the town?"

"People occasionally do that you know." Anna sighed, shaking her head at it. "I loved this building growing up. I'd peddle my five-speed here on the weekends to check out books and then read in there because they ad aircon and we didn't."

"I'll guess it's got that smell to it."

"Smell?"

"Yeah, smell." John pointed at the building. "Not just the books all growing old and musting together but that old building smell. The one you get when someplace is hanging on to life but inevitably crumbles to the steady beat of time."

"You are the most unromantic person I think I've ever met." Anna huffed but John only winked.

"You didn't think so this morning when we almost set your house on fire."

"I'm ignoring that." Anna led them to a bench and sat down, "If I can offer my opinion, about your business interests here in Downton, I'd like to suggest you design your factories and businesses with this as your design model."

"Why not glass and concrete and steel like they're doing everywhere else?"

"Because we're not a big city and it'd just look garish next to everything else." Anna gestured toward the town. "People live here because they want to remember a time that long since passed them by."

"And we shouldn't do our due diligence and bring them to the modern age?"

Anna shook her head, "Why do you think people still pay to see the old mansions and castles of Europe if they love the modern age?"

"Misplaced nostalgia."

"All the genealogical advisors in that basement would hiss at you for that." Anna unwrapped another chocolate, "People want to feel connected to the past the way they want to go into the future."

"You're suggesting we give them a security blanket."

"Change is difficult, John," Anna took the wrappers out, folding them together to create a paper crane. 'People don't want to feel lost."

They sat in silence a moment before Anna sighed. "I think we're sometimes in too much a of a hurry to embrace the future that we forgot why the past even mattered."

"Why does it matter to you?"

Anna leaned forward on the bench, shoving her shoulders up near her ears as she rocked back and forth. "It made us who we are. Beyond the simple biology of needing your parents to meet so you'd come into being, there's the reality that where we are right now, in this moment, hinges directly on what's all come before and that's important."

"Give me an example." John fished another hard candy from his bag, shoving the wrapper in his pocket with the others.

"The Red Scare." Anna gesticulated toward the trees, "If America or the Soviet Union decided the other was just playing chicken and actually went through with their threat then we'd be a smoking crater right now."

"Okay but this," John motioned toward the building shadowing them, "This wasn't built to stop the Soviets bringing Communism and the Red Army Choir to America."

"No but it was built to save a piece of history inherent in it's construction." Anna laughed a little, "Even the book _Notre Dame de Paris_ was written explicitly to stop the Parisians destroying Notre Dame with their alterations and architectural ideas. Hugo saw the value in preserving it as it was for the monument it is today."

"I doubt very much that Victor Hugo, for as interesting and talented as he was, saw around the edge of time to see Notre Dame as one of the greatest tourist attractions in Paris."

"But people don't visit the cathedral there, or in Rome, or the Great Wall of China because they're modern, John. They go there to touch history because it matters to them. It's part of the social identity and part of our historical DNA. As necessary as the DNA that gave you brown hair and blue eyes."

John laughed, "Again, I state that you are the deepest thinker I've ever met."

"And, again," Anna gathered her things, taking the used wrappers to the rubbish bin, "I take it as a sincere compliment."

"So you'd have us take the old factories, the crumbling buildings, and the empty shops lining your streets and restore them as is."

"The Historical Society would thank you and you'd avoid the hefty fines they'd give if you violated the historical nature of them." Anna guided them back to the road, following it toward her car. "And you'd endear yourself to the town."

"The town that doesn't like change."

"No town likes change, John. This place just happens to fuss and worry over it a bit more since half your population are geriatrics and the other half are dying to escape to University."

"What are their chances?"

Anna shrugged, waiting at the light again before leading the crossing. "If you go by the students in some of my classes it'll be a miracle if they pass state testing. But I think the determined ones'll break free, they always do."

"I'm going to assume that you were one of those determined ones."

Anna mocked a curtsey. "I was and I rather enjoyed what I saw of the world."

"Not much of the skies then?"

"Oh heavens no," Anna shook her head, "I never wanted to be a pilot and I was too short for it anyway. Besides, the testosterone required to even compete in that field was beyond me. I just wanted to serve my country, see the world, and get a decent education."

"And now you dispense that education on the deserving and unwilling of the next generation."

"They can be little snots sometimes but it's all worth it for the ones who want it." Anna checked her watch, "If I haven't destroyed your appetite with the candy are you interested in lunch?"

"I'm always interested in food and if it means I get the chance to continue our conversation I'd say it's all the better."

"Good." Anna stopped, frowning from the driver side of the car. "Do you know that woman?"

John turned over his shoulder and his face fell immediately into a scowl. "Unfortunately I'm well acquainted with her."

"Given that she's on a warpath in our direction I'm guessing I'm about to know her too."

The woman, looking exactly like the foster mother from _Orphan Black_ marched her way across the street, sticking up her middle finger toward the honking cars and stopped right in front of John. He held her gaze and neither backed down, giving Anna a niggling feeling that perhaps she was about to witness Battle Royale right on the side of the street.

"How interesting to see you here Batesy."

"And you, though I doubt very much it's a coincidence."

"Your secretary-"

"The fact that she even spoke to you just ended her career with me." John bit through his teeth. "What do you want Vera?"

"Can't I come and greet an old lover?"

"Not when you followed me a few thousand miles to do so."

"I thought that was supposed to be romantic, dropping everything to be with the one you love."

"You actually have to love someone for that to be true." John reached for the handle on the car but Vera stopped him. "Move or I'll move you since the restraining order was clear about the minimum distance you're supposed to be away from me."

"You weren't returning my calls."

"Then maybe you should've gotten the hint."

Vera clicked her tongue against her teeth, "No, no, no that just won't do. See, I was calling about a business proposition."

"Then go through the solicitors, like normal people do."

"And watch them dither and whine just to drain my pocketbook for their hourly wage, I don't think so." Vera stopped, finally noticing Anna. "You turn around fast Batesy. Not even six months finalized and you already worked yourself a bit on the side."

"I guess it's all a step in the right direction if it'd be away from you." Anna crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm sure you've got nothing to complain about if he decided to move on and leave you. I would've."

"Batting for the other team are you?"

"I don't play baseball… or cricket, for that matter."

"Not what I meant."

"I know what you meant." Anna waved her away, "Now please, I'd rather you didn't stand so close to my car. The paint might peel under the assault."

"Oh, feisty." Vera eyed Anna up and down, "She like this in bed too Batesy? Give you what for and tie you to the bedposts and all that?"

"That's enough." John stepped between Vera and Anna. "Ms. Smith has been nothing but gracious and generous with her time since I arrived."

"I'm sure she has." Vera reached a hand forward but John caught it. "What, don't want to admit to the dark circles under your eyes that she probably put there."

"Whether she did or not is none of your business." His voice lowered, "Now I'll ask you again before I call the police. What are you doing here?"

"Eyeing an investment."

"What investment?" John laughed, "You already sunk the half of the company you took in the divorce and, last I heard, your boyfriend had to bail you out of bankruptcy."

"Keeping tabs on me?"

"Who do you think bought back your half?" John's face hardened, "If you're here to ruin anything then I'd suggest you leave before I bury you in legal work until you've not got two pounds to rub between your greedy little fingers."

"Legal threats?" Vera laughed, "You used to be so much more intimidating when you'd bring out the big guns and the drink."

"I'm not that man anymore."

"I've noticed. "Vera eyed him up and down, shaking her head, "And it's a shame because you're simply not the man you were. The weakness wafts off you so strongly now I could smell it across the road."

"Then stay across the road and leave me be."

John went to climb into the car and Anna followed sit as Vera took a step back. "I know why you're here John and trust me when I say I want my share of it or I'll make sure you get none of it."

"I don't owe you a thing, Vera, and even if you could guess why I'm here you'd never understand it."

Anna peeled away from the spot the moment John closed his door and gunned the gas down the road. She waited until they were a few minutes away from the confrontation before speaking. "I've got one question."

"If it's, 'how could you ever marry that woman' then the short answer if I was young and stupid and thought I knew what I was doing when I confused sexual lust for real love."

"No, that wasn't what I wanted to ask." They stopped at a light and Anna pointed, "Midwestern comfort food or our attempt at a Philly Cheesesteak?"

John cracked a smile, "I'll go for your comfort food I think."

"Good answer." She pulled toward the restaurant, "But remind me never to play cards with you."

"Why's that?"

"You've got an incredible poker face." Anna parked, "I would've taken my fist to her nose and tried to blacken an eye."

"Then I'm a little sorry to've missed the chance to see you as the Million Dollar Baby." John smiled, exiting the car with her. "But it wouldn't have done anything but given her a fight and I wouldn't have wanted to put you in that kind of position."

"What if that's the position I wanted?"

John shook his head, "No one wins when they crawl down to her level to fight it out with her."

"Speaking from experience?"

"It's the most painful teacher I'm afraid." John pulled the door open, "But right now I want to coat my precious arteries with your caloric heavy comfort food."

"Then right this way Mr. Bates."


	8. Willing to Wait for It

The day only had the one blemish on it and as Anna pulled into her driveway she was almost sorry to stop the car. Her hands stayed on the wheel and neither she nor John got out. Only the sound of their synchronized breathing echoed around them, offset by the muted noises of the nightlife skittering in the trees just beyond the glow of her outside lights.

Anna pulled the key from the ignition and went to speak to John. Instead his lips meshed with hers, perhaps a bit more forcefully than she would have liked, and her hands froze while her body attempted to work around the gearbox between them. He pulled back after a minute, the shadows from the car and the night making his expression mostly guesswork on her part, and spoke softly.

"I'm sorry. That was-"

"Completely unexpected but not unappreciated." Anna responded, her hand holding the keys slipping down to give her body the support it needed to maintain her lean. "I hope that was more than a 'thank you'."

"It was partially a 'thank you' for the lovely day you gave me. As well as the insights into how I can win over this town."

"You still have to buy it first."

"Indeed." She heard his smile rather than saw it before the tone of his voice sobered again. "But mostly I just couldn't keep my feelings to myself any longer."

"I knew there was a rather passionate man underneath all that stoic exterior." Anna teased.

"Passionate about you."

"And how passionate is that?"

His finger stroked over her cheek, "Take us inside and I can show you."

Anna took a breath, "I'm not a naïve person, John, and I want very much to act on what we'd only continue to do once we're inside that house. But I think the energy of today might be coloring our impulses."

"I don't know," John grinned, "We almost set fire to your kitchen this morning and spent the better part of the last thirty six hours with one each other. I'd say that's more than most people have before they decide to sleep together."

"And I don't want either of us to have doubts in the morning as to what our intentions were or our feelings if we crawled out of the same bed." Anna took a breath, "I'm sure I wouldn't have any regrets and I doubt you would but if you're willing, I want to wait until we're both sure of what we want and what we're doing."

John covered her hand with his, "I agree."

"Good." Anna maneuvered to kiss his cheek before whispering in his ear, "Because when I finally do get you in a bedroom or anywhere dark enough, I'm not going to let up until we legitimately can't move."

His breath hitched and she grinned in spite of herself. "I think I'd be a more than willing participant in that particular activity."

"Then you wouldn't mind if we just sat on my couch and pretended to watch a movie?"

"Why is there any kind of pretend going into that statement?"

"Because I'm probably just going to make out with you the whole time instead."

John's eyebrows raised a bit but his smile took away all the shock, "And then you're going to send me to bed in your house after telling me you want your hands all over me?"

"I didn't say hands, though I might be willing to debate second base with you."

He laughed, "You really are American."

"How so?"

"Baseball metaphors and direct speech." He shrugged, "If we were in England we might get all the way to the bedroom before we even said the word 'sex' out loud."

"Then be glad we're in Ohio." Anna opened her door, "I'll let you choose the movie we won't be watching."

"I'll pick something we've both seen then."

Anna led the way to the basement, taking the stairs easily to show John her sectional sofa and large television. He perused her movie collection while she worked out a snack situation, insisting on their necessity before the opening credits rolled, and they settled into the soft cushions. John sat next to her, pretending on keeping a gentlemanly distance that closed within the first ten minutes as his fingers tickled up her arm.

She allowed the barest hint of a smile to work its way over her lips while pretending to engross herself in a movie she could almost recite line for line. John maintained his fine act as well, sneaking his hand closer only to steal a handful of candy or a few kernels of popcorn. Their hands would meet in the bag or the bowl and both withdrew quickly but side glances and swiftly turned heads betrayed their playful scheming.

Eventually Anna maneuvered the bowl and bag to the large footrest in front of the sofa and slid ever so slowly toward John. He held his course and barely moved as she sidled up next to him. And when her hand happened to rest on his thigh to adjust her position, he faintly twitched.

When she slid her hand higher, ghosting ever so gently toward his belt loops, Anna held back a grin at John's flaring nostrils. Or as she cracked her neck and rested her head on his shoulder, he only shifted enough to give her the space under his arm. Holding her position Anna let her arm rest just on his thigh and started her assault by tracing the herring-bone stitch of his trousers. Had she not already had so many things about him that amazed her, Anna would have thought his self-control the most impressive of them all.

Only to be outdone by the growing tent in his trousers.

About three-quarters of the way through the movie the arm resting around her shoulders moved to allow his fingers to trail their way up her arm. His other hand was not idle either, skimming the fabric of her thin jumper to scrape its material over her skin. Each pass left Anna giving a tiny shiver and wondering if the material felt that coarse when she chose it in the morning.

His lips slid over her hair, pressing a tiny kiss to the crown of her head before working his way down. The gentle glide ruffled her hair against her scalp in contrast the way his fingers traveled higher and higher up her arms. Anna's shivers grew more pronounced and she realized she could do nothing but subject herself to the slowest seduction any man ever attempted.

Or she could fight back.

Leaving the devious smirk on her face Anna maneuvered against John to run her hand over the tent in his trousers. He sucked in a breath, pulling her back against his chest as she leaned closer to him, and his fingers dug in at her shoulders. Anna pulled her legs off the floor and used her momentum to pivot herself around to face John.

Without another word, and forgetting the movie echoing through her surround-sound speakers, Anna straddled him and eased her knees into the sofa cushions on either side of John. Sliding over the fabric she tightened the grip of her knees on his hips and used her advantageous position to grind down. His head went back into the cushions, his groan filling her ears over the din of the other sounds in her basement. Her hands went to his shoulders and Anna just watched his face as she rocked her hips against him.

It was like playing chicken when neither side wanted to win. John's hands used the fabric of her jumper as a guide to skim and glide over the skin of her back before massaging into her hips. When his grip finally settled on her ass, pulling her into the returning jerk of his hips, Anna finally kissed him.

Their mouths countered the friction and motion of their bodies. Slow, steady movements skated their lips over one another as if sensation was purest when implied more than explicitly obeyed. Anna's fingers relaxed into his hair and around the skin of his face to enjoy the dance when she snuck tastes of his lips with her tongue.

He responded with enthusiasm, following her lead at their mouths while changing the pace of their hips, and one of his hands slipped up her chest. Anna gasped into John's mouth, only encouraging him, when he brushed fingers over her breast. In that moment Anna vaguely remembered attempting a similar situation in high school in this very same basement but thought the situation vastly improved.

Then it was two teenagers with limited experience and only a theoretical understanding of sex just bumping their bony, pubescent bodies against one another in an attempt to better understand the dynamic. This was two grown adults responding to the oldest call of time. And Anna enjoyed the response John gave.

She tried to pull herself closer to him when the hand from her ass abandoned his attentions to play in her hair. His fingers lightly tugged and played in the blonde locks he found there while Anna firmed her hold on the back of his neck before slanting her mouth over his. Their mutual voyage of discovery had them driving harder into one another and Anna recognized the rise in her own pleasure from the pull of her jeans and knickers against her sensitive nerves.

Anna noted John's pace increasing by the vigorous knead of her breasts and the press of his chest against hers when he went to draw in more air. She abandoned his mouth a moment, seeking to fill her own starved lungs, and he set his lips to kissing from her neck to the bit of skin exposed by her V-neck. And in a moment that surprised her as much as him, Anna drew it over her head.

With barely a nod of invitation John's lips trailed down to the cups of her bra and his hand sought another location. She keened when he popped the button on her jeans and worked the zipper far enough down to stroke one of his fingers down her knickers. He paused, a rumbling moan rolling through his chest when he found her knickers already damp.

Their eyes met and Anna almost gave up her earlier statement about sex just to take him there on her sofa with his eyes that dark. Instead he pulled her knickers down enough to work his fingers through her dewy folds and tease her higher. Just when dark patches spotted her vision John used his other hand at her back to draw her even closer.

Between the lift of his hips and the attentions of his hand Anna soon toppled over the edge. Her forehead rested on his shoulder, her hands trembling in their grip of his shirt, and eventually she found the strength of sit up straight. John held her gaze and drew his fingers to his mouth, sucking them dry in front of her.

Anna threw herself onto his mouth, one of her hands working his trousers open to finally hold him. John bucked her grip but Anna persisted. Their motions held no finesse, only a frantic energy that had Anna stroking and pulling at him like a randy teenager. Albeit a teenager with far more experience, enough to know that if she positioned herself just so then they could come together. And with carefully planned motions they did.

The closing credits of the movie accompanied their mutual cries of satisfaction. Cries that soon drown in the satisfied smiles and kisses of their denouement. Anna pulled back first, grinning at John while her hands smoothed over his shirt, but John spoke before she could.

"If that's only a hint of what's to come when you trap me in a darkened room, Ms. Smith," He caught her hand, the one she used to get him off, "Then I'm more than willing to wait for more."

"I'll be honest," Anna slipped some of the hair off his forehead, "If I'd known what I was getting into then I wouldn't have made my earlier statement."

"I think you were right to." John shrugged, "That's a big step."

"We've already covered first and second base and… if I remember all the teenage stops along the way, we're well on our way to third."

"If I remember my baseball metaphors correctly then I'd say we're probably somewhere near short sighted."

Anna laughed, "It's short stop."

"Whatever."

"Come one then." Anna stepped backward, using her hand to pull John to his feet before zipping him back in place. "I believe you need to borrow my washer and I think we could both use some sleep."

"In our separate beds."

"In our separate beds for now." John handed over her jumper and Anna closed her jeans. "Though I'd imagine your bed's comfortable enough to not feel so lonely if I'm not there."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Anna winked at him, draping her jumper over her shoulders. "It might feel very lonely now."

"Then just write down what you'd want me to do to you in it when I eventually make it there." John dipped his head to capture her lips with his and Anna's hands held onto his shoulders for support until they bad to break for air. "Then I'll be more than willing to fulfill your every desire."

"That might take time."

"You did say you wanted to keep me there until neither of us could move."

"So I did." Anna caught her jumper when it tried to fall off her shoulders. "But now I think that might not be as ridiculous a feat as I thought when I first suggested it."

"I guess we'll just have to find out."

"I'm willing to wait for it."

John took one of her hands, kissing the back of it, "So am I."


	9. Shape of You

Compared to their Saturday, Sunday was rather tame. Anna escorted John to her local church before taking him on the tour of the nine other possible houses of worship within the fifteen-minute drive of the first. After that John surrendered his afternoon to preparing for the meetings that filled his Monday schedule and Anna submitted to the demands of grading she put off to enjoy the weekend with John.

It felt rather domestic as they both took up space in her sitting room, the trees and rolling hills of her property visible through her large windows, and maintained a comfortable quiet while her music lilted softly in the background. The scratch of her pen and the click of his laptop keys set a kind of cadence to their work until Anna strained her eyes to see the script on the papers in front of her. With a stretch she left her chair and flicked on a light, laughing when John blinked at it.

"That dark already?"

Anna pulled her mobile from her pocket, "That late already."

"I guess there's only so much you can do." John clicked a few more things before closing the lid. "Get all your work done?"

"Enough so that when I ask them for their homework tomorrow they can't throw it back in my face." Anna sighed, "Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it when most of them will just move ten minutes away from where they grew up and then marry their high school sweethearts."

"Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Not if it's what they want but in most cases this is what they get."

John frowned, "Lack of opportunity?"

"I firmly believe that most things denied us are lack of initiative, not lack of opportunity." Anna shrugged, "I don't want them looking at their lives five, ten, twenty, or even forty years down the road and thinking 'is this really it'?"

"Life without regrets then?"

Anna gave an embarrassed grimace, "Is that too much to ask?"

"I've yet to meet anyone who can claim they've lived their life so well they don't have any regrets."

Taking the open section of sofa next to him Anna folded her legs underneath her. "I hope it's not too bold a question to ask if you'd tell me what one of yours is."

"One of my regrets?" John blew out a gust of air when Anna nodded. His fingers raked through his hair and he stared out the large windows before moving his laptop to the side table and faced her. "Marrying my ex-wife."

"I could see that."

"Thank you very much."

Anna stuck out her tongue, "I had to meet her and I could've told you she was a harpy then."

"She wasn't when we married." Anna raised an eyebrow and John defended himself. "She wasn't. At least not like she is now."

"What happened to turn her to the Dark Side?"

"I wish I could say it was something as simple as she cracked or lost a job or something but we never really had struggles like that." John's face scrunched as he strained to think. "I'd say it was gradual."

"You just grew apart?"

John nodded, "I decided I was going to quit drinking after my mother died. I'd given up smoking about five years before and she didn't like that."

"She didn't want you to live to see your grandchildren?"

"She would've had to actually want children for there to be grandchildren." John shook his head, "I take it back, that was the moment we started growing apart."

"You wanted kids?"

"Still do if I can." At Anna's grin John hurried to cover himself, "I wasn't meaning to imply that's-"

"I'm just having you on." She pulled her knees up to her chest, "When'd you find out she didn't want kids?"

"About two years into marriage." John shrugged, "You take a year to get to know the other person and then a year to work out a rhythm between you two and then I thought maybe we could try for kids."

"Is that when she dropped the bomb on you?"

"It was a huge fight and we never really recovered from it." John frowned, "Wait, why am I the only one sharing my regrets?"

"I'm sorry, I thought it was story time." Anna took a breath, "I guess, if I had to pick one, it's that I didn't take a risk with Evelyn Napier."

"Who?"

"He was this liaison who worked in my office when I was stationed in Leeds." Anna giggled, "He had this embarrassingly huge crush on Mary to the point where everyone had this office pool on when she'd have to break his heart."

"But she married Matthew."

Anna gave a quick nod, "And so he got the picture after that but it was still hard to watch someone that good, that solid lose out on something."

"Not all love is requited." John nudged her, "But you're telling me Mr. Napier's regrets, not yours."

"Well, there was this last Christmas Party before I went to my next posting and he was there. We struck up a conversation and he offered me a chance to leave the Air Force then to join him on this business venture. I thought, at the time, I wanted to serve forever and so I turned him down." Anna sighed, "I guess I sometimes wonder what would've happened if I'd stayed in England and worked with him."

John laughed and Anna swatted at him, "What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry," He tried to contain himself, "I thought you were about to tell me he proposed to you or something and you wondered why you didn't serve as his second choice."

"Sometimes second best isn't bad, Mr. Bates." Anna beat him with a pillow, "But no, Evelyn only ever had eyes for Mary and everyone else was just invisible."

"I guess we all get tunnel vision when we see something we want."

Anna met John's eyes, refusing to blink as she crawled toward him on the sofa. "And do you see something you want Mr. Bates?"

"I might." He smirked at her, leaning back on the sofa so she could position herself over him. "But I think the night before you have to face rooms full of teenagers and I have to sell some difficult pills isn't the time to chase after it."

"You've got me there." Anna ghosted her hand over his face, "But how I wish I could take you on this sofa right now."

"I wouldn't argue."

"Your back would. There's a wooden beam right about here," Anna pressed into his side and John twitched. "Are you ticklish?"

"No," He blocked her hands, the smile breaking over his face. "I wouldn't play with that kind of fire Ms. Smith."

"I think I might want to."

They battled back and forth over the sofa until it came to a draw as John's mobile rang. He held up a finger, sliding his finger over the screen to answer the call. "John Bates speaking."

Anna got off the sofa, gathering the graded papers and working them into her bag. She risked a look back at John and he cringed but she waved him off. The call took him back to the borrowed room and she secured the house for the night while making sure all was in order for the next day.

They met in the hall and Anna pointed to the mobile in his hand. "I hope that was good news."

"Good and bad." He winced, "All the meetings are moved to tomorrow so my flight is tomorrow night."

"Oh," Anna deflated slightly, "I'm guessing you'll be checking out in the morning then?"

"Unfortunately." John frowned at his mobile before taking her hand with his free one. "I'd like to see you again though, if I could."

"When?"

"I'll be back in town in a month if all goes well and I'd need a place to stay." He grinned, "Someone to give their opinion on the approved sights and the plans."

"Are you asking about the availability of the room or my availability as a person?"

"Both."

Anna pursed her lips but surrendered to a smile of her own. "School's out by then so I'll have some free time in between teacher trainings and evaluations."

"You'd have free nights then?" John's finger skimmed up her arm and Anna failed to suppress the shiver that ran through her.

"I'd move the earth to fulfill that particular promise, Mr. Bates."

"I'm looking forward to it." John's head dipped down toward hers, his voice a whisper, "Though, I do have a question."

"What is it?" Anna closed her eyes as his lips found her neck and laid a line of kisses there. Her fingers gripped in his shirt in an attempt to hold herself upright as his voice hummed over her skin. It took all of her focus to hear him while her body heated under his attentions.

"I wonder if you might be willing to let me give you a taste of what you'll be waiting for." He paused, fingers teasing under the edge of her shirt to draw it up. "That is, if you're willing."

"Yes please." Anna turned her mouth to meet his while his hands tightened their grip on her hips to haul her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he took a side step to place her back against the wall. The gentle thud roused her enough to tangle her fingers in his hair and rest her own head back against the wall to better feel him.

His hands snuck under her shirt and rucked it up to smooth over her back while his mouth covered the exposed area of her chest with his kisses and caresses. Anna tried to maneuver him with her hands in his hair but found her guidance shockingly lacking. John seemed to get the hint though and shifted just enough to look in her eyes.

"What do you want Anna?"

"I'd like to make it a home run if that's alright with you." Anna smiled at him, "Though probably not against the wall in my hallway for our first time, if that's alright with you."

John pivoted, hands holding securely at her thighs, and entered his borrowed room. The lamp on the desk gave the room a soft glow as he settled on the bed, sitting on the edge with Anna's legs now dangling over his. Her fingers slid from his hair to edge his jaw before she laid her own trail of kisses.

He let his head go back and Anna grinned to herself. With nips at his jaw that had John hissing through his teeth, she slipped the few buttons at the top of his shirt loose before tugging it loose from his belted trousers. Within a moment she pulled the article over his head and spread her fingers wide to take in the feel of him under her attentions.

The hair there tickled her delicate fingertips but she massaged through it. Drawing patterns over his muscles and around the contours of his skin gave Anna an idea. When she acted on it John let out a gasp, her tongue and teeth now teasing the skin of his chest. Sucking on his chest left little red patches and Anna decided to risk a red patch at one of his nipples.

John bucked under her, his hands bunching in the crumpled fabric of her shirt, and groaned. Anna did not cease her attentions, choosing instead to flick open his belt and pull it loose with a flourish before dropping it to join his shirt on the floor. Her hand then followed the path from the previous evening to open his trousers.

Shifting enough to pull his trousers from his hips she ran her hand over him through the fabric of his boxers. John twitched, fingers digging into the skin of her back, and Anna removed the last barrier between him and her hand. Adjusting to shove both bunches of fabric off his legs and leave him naked under her, Anna set to her task.

The smooth skin warmed under her touch, swelling with each stroke. Her mouth set a reverse journey from his chest to his jaw while her hand tightened and tugged. When her lips eased over him she worked him harder. When she decided to add teeth and tongue her strokes lengthened and soothed.

Anna found herself so wrapped in exploring his body under her that it took her a moment to realize when his hands insisted at the hem of her shirt. In a moment it left her body and her hands returned to their former occupation while his hands took a more active roll. One slipped her bra clasp loose, leaving it hanging from her shoulders while her chest pressed toward his to better the proximity of her mouth to his skin, and the other teased under the waistline of her jeans. He took her pause in attentions to sneak that hand under the elastic of her knickers and grabbed at her ass. She bucked into him, rubbing the fabric of her jeans against his arousal by accident and he hissed while Anna moaned. They exchanged a look and Anna grabbed his wrist to move his hand.

She stepped away from him, dropping her bra to leave her exposed to him from the chest up. John reached for her but Anna held his hands away, shaking her head as a smile stole over her lips. He grinned, hands going to the edge of the bed to hold there and waited.

With a little finesse, and a little awkwardness, she popped the button on her jeans and drew the zipper down so slowly the click of the teeth releasing echoed almost as loudly as the blood rushing in her ears or the thumping of her heart against her chest. Anna stepped out of them and snuck a thumb under the elastic of her knickers to sneak them down her legs. Once she stepped clear of them she caught his eyes again.

Everything about him sparked. His eyes, dark from the lack of light but now blown wider with the picture before him, bored into her. His knuckles whitened on the edge of the bed where her gripped the comforter in his hands. His feet were on tiptoe, as if ready to spring forward at any moment. And, to Anna's excitement, his erection stood even taller and prouder than before.

Anna closed the distance, pushing gently on his shoulder to settle him until the backs of his knees hit the edge of the bed and his feet flattened. She straddled his thighs again and looped her arms over his shoulders. With a smile she put her mouth over his, leaving a sliver of air between them, and whispered to him.

"Do we need anything?"

"I'm clean."

"Me too."

"Do you need something?" His hands trekked up her thigh, one tracing the dips above her ass while the other drew circled the inside of her leg to play near her folds.

"Modern medicine's wonderful when you've got birth control." She let her fingers trail over his flexing shoulder blades. "Unless you want another layer of protection."

"I'd rather not, if it's all the same to you." She gasped as he formed a 'V' with his fingers and massaged on either side of her folds. "I want every moment of this experience with you. No holds barred."

"Me too." Anna took control of his mouth then, moving her lips over his until she found a rhythm she liked.

His fingers spared no time in taking a hold on her ass to guide her forward onto his fingers. They slipped into her while his thumb flicked at her nerves to send Anna rocking against him for more friction. John answered her without reservation and soon had his throbbing erection trapped between them.

Anna finally broke the kiss, shifting away from his hand to take his arousal in her own. "I think we've not got time to waste."

"Bringing you to climax wouldn't be a waste."

"I'm glad you think so." Anna lifted up on her knees, her hand at his shoulder keeping her balance while her other hand positioned him. "But we can come together if you want."

"Yes please."

Anna sunk down and both groaned together. John kept his hand between them, pressing for added stimulation, and Anna raked her nails over his shoulders to give expression to what she could only say with moans and whimpers. He spanned from her ass to her hip with his other hand, thrusting into her while rocking her closer to bring them both to the edge.

When the colors sparked before Anna's eyes she changed her motion and bobbed up and down. John grunted, using the lift from his legs and hips to strike as deeply as he could inside her, and orchestrated his fingers more urgently against her. Anna fell over the edge with his name and John followed her a minute later with a gasp of hers.

He fell back on the bed, bringing Anna to lay over his chest, and they stayed there to just breathe. She adjusted, slipping herself free to lay next to him. John adjusted to face her and stroked a finger down her cheek with a smile.

"I only intended third base."

Anna laughed with him, moving her hands under her head and shifting to her side. "Well, then I guess you sort of got it."

"You definitely got your home run."

She grinned, "I did."

"I just hope you don't make it one of those things you regret." John brushed some hair from her face. "I know it's not ideal and things may not-"

"Mr. Bates," Anna placed a finger over his lips. "Given how much we've already experienced together and how much we've got to look forward to, can't we take this one night and let it be enough for now?"

He smiled back at her, "I think so."

"Good." Anna sat up, "Then I think we'd both be wise to actually get to sleep now. We've got to be adults tomorrow."

"I don't know," John teased as Anna slid off the bed, gathering her clothes. "I thought what we just did was very adult."

Anna shot him a look, "You're incorrigible now that you've gone and got your leg over."

"Well," He shrugged, one arm going behind his head as he watched her sorting her clothes on her arm. "I think I could stand to do it again now that I've seen you without your clothes."

"Enjoying the view then?" Anna came to the side of the bed, leaning over to take his lips with hers.

"I enjoyed every bit of you." John ran a finger down her side. "I very much enjoy the shape of you, Anna Smith."

"And I enjoy you, John Bates." Anna kissed him one last time. "And I'll enjoy you when you come back to me."

"I couldn't do anything else." He put a hand to her cheek, running his thumb along her cheekbone. "It'll only be a month but I'll be counting the days… maybe even the hours."

"So will I." Anna snorted, "When I'm not counting the days until summer holidays."

"I'll be back by then." He kissed her slowly now, "I'll be back by then."


	10. Listen to the Man

Contrary to Anna's original fears, a month was not as long as she thought. Between emails and skyping and the occasional old-fashioned postcard via airmail, the month breezed by. Before she knew it her students were sprinting for the doors, a few wishing her a happy break, and the classroom sat empty while smelling of summer.

She sighed, pushing back from her chair with its distinctive catch on the back wheel, and started taking down the posters and reminders she tacked on every available surface. As she reached for the last one, huffing to herself with the realization she may need to grab a chair, a long arm snuck over her head. With a tug the poster and its thumbtack came loose.

Anna turned around and flung her arms around John's neck. He laughed, kissing her cheek, and wrapped his arms snuggly about her waist to hold her in place. She laid her lips over his and stayed there a moment just to be sure she was not dreaming.

When John broke the kiss a wide grin split his face, "I guess that means you missed me."

"Cheeky monkey." Anna swatted at his shoulder as he helped her back to the floor. "Of course I missed you."

"Not as much as you'll miss this I'm guessing." John held up the poster they managed to crumple between them. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine. I'm not teaching _Othello_ next year anyway. I've only got Freshman and Seniors."

"The new and the old." John flipped through the stack, "How'll you ever manage?"

"Same as I have every other year." Anna slid the stack from his grip. "By being a superb teacher."

"I assumed you'd have to be that but I was just wondering how you're expected to manage all these hooligans when you're supposed to be an adult."

Anna leaned on the side of her desk, noting John's little smirk, "What do you mean, _supposed to_?"

"I don't know." John stepped forward, tracing a finger down her cheek, "Snogging a man you barely know in the middle of your classroom doesn't exactly reek of dignity."

"What does it reek of?" Anna tripped her fingers up his tie to grab it near the knot.

"Desperation usually."

Anna released John's tie in a hurry and stepped sideways only to groan at the sight of Mary. "What are you doing here?"

"I ask myself that question every day." Mary nodded at John, "Good to see you again Mr. Bates. I do hope you're return trip to us didn't include any visits to the local garage."

"I managed the wrong side of the road and the wrong side of the car beautifully, thank you Mrs. Crawley."

"Ugh," Mary shuddered, "Only my students call me that and seeing as they all ran out of here like bats out of hell I think we can assume you're safe to just call me 'Mary'."

"Then I'll do that." John opened his hand to her and then Anna, "Since I'm in town and it seems like a night for celebration would either of you ladies care for dinner as my treat on a successful school year survived?"

"Unfortunately for you I'll have to decline." Mary waved a hand, "Matthew's coming to get me in ten and then we've got a weekend in Pittsburgh that I'm not looking forward to."

"That conference for his job?"

Mary nodded, "Someone decided to go and change all the laws about supplement fact panels and since he's a food and safety lawyer we're trucking up there for it." She paused, "And, at the risk of delaying whatever evening you two've probably planned to a T, might I steal Anna for a moment?"

Anna squeezed John's hand before following Mary out of the room. She led them across the hallway to her classroom. When the door closed Anna immediately tensed.

"What's going on?"

Mary wrung her hands a moment before dropping them to her sides. "The weekend in Pittsburgh's not just about Matthew's job."

Anna nodded, "You've got an offer there?"

"A couple. Well," Mary cringed, "Three. All Catholic Schools but the pay's better and the hours are-"

"You don't have to explain to me why you'd move, Mary." Anna stepped forward to rub her friend's arm, "You've got to make your own choices and so do I. We're all managing ourselves best we can."

"I just…" Mary gestured to Anna, "I want you to come with me."

"To Pittsburgh?" Anna shook her head, "No thank you. It's almost as bad as Cleveland."

"But you can't live the rest of your life in this town teaching kids who don't care about Shakespeare or Quadratic equations about that kind of thing."

"There are those who care."

"Not enough Anna." Mary sighed, "I just worry that you'll slave your life away in this dying town and nothing'll come of it. You'll marry someone with no aspirations and then teach your kids in the same classrooms without the right funding and the never ending budget cuts and-"

"Okay, Nostradamus, I don't need all the doom and gloom thank you." Anna sighed, "And I do appreciate your worry. But there's more to life than the facts you're giving me right now. Especially now that Mr. Bates has an interest in the town."

"An interest in the town or in you?"

Anna gave a little smile, "I'll go for either at this point."

Mary frowned, "Is he serious about all that stuff he gave to the city council last month?"

"Why do you care, you're moving?" Anna teased back and Mary swatted at her.

"My father is investing in this insane venture."

"Because you live here?"

"It might've been part of why he presented it as an option." Mary rolled her eyes, "Mum's from Cincinnati and they were thinking of moving there when he retired from the service but now they're thinking about here."

"But you're moving."

"I know. Funny how this place is just the black hole that sucks you into it." Mary sighed, "Anyway, I just want to make sure you know what you're getting into."

"Into how?"

"There's his ex-wife for starters."

"Met her already."

"And the business side of it."

"Gave him some pointers there."

"And-"

"Mary," Anna grabbed her hands, "How do you know any of this. When he came last month he was a stranger to you."

"I've talked with my father since then and found out they're old friends."

Anna closed her eyes to shake her head and sigh before gripping Mary's hands tightly a moment. "I appreciate your worries about me, I truly do, but I'm an adult. I make my own decisions… most of the times better than the ones you make."

"You can't be serious." Mary scoffed, "You gave up a business offer from Evelyn Napier and now that man is rolling in it."

"You gave up the chance to marry him to be with Matthew and move to Pittsburgh." Anna opened the door, "Funny how it all works out, isn't it."

"Don't try and one-up me Anna Smith," Mary called at her, "I know where you sleep and I'm not above those pranks we pulled at the Academy."

Anna waved her off and returned to her classroom. She stopped in the doorway to see John speaking with a man about his height with a gray swatch of hair and busy eyebrows that intimidated move people when he used them to look down his prominent nose at them. They intimidated Anna.

She stepped quietly into the room but the man turned to face her, his voice deep enough to comfort and frighten. "Ah, Ms. Smith, I'm glad you're still here."

"I practically live here, Mr. Carson." Anna pulled at the fingers of her left hand, "How can I help you?"

"Mr. Bates here was just telling me about some of his business plans for the community in the coming months and I proposed that perhaps he might be willing to offer spaces to our seniors aspiring for business positions as interns."

"I'm sure the work won't be ready in time for this year, surely." Anna looked at John, who only shrugged.

"We've got a few construction teams putting in bids and we'll know their projected outcomes by the end of this week. If all goes well with the three we're favoring at the moment we could have at least two of our factories and one of our business centers ready by September, maybe October at the latest."

"And you're looking for interns?"

"Part of the business model the city council approved was because we'd want to source local labor."

"All of it?"

John shook his head, "Not all. Our office managers and factory heads'll pulled in from other locations for the time being. We need efficiency to get it all up and running but within two years we want ninety percent of our employees at these locations to be local."

"It's not a benefit to the town to have you here otherwise." Mr. Carson turned to Anna, "I'm sure you'd know some of the students you'd recommend to Mr. Bates for his program."

"I know a few who'll have interest but I think they should know a bit more about it first." Anna pointed toward John, "As should we."

"I think I could draw up a prospective proposal for you and submit it by the end of next week, once we've got our timeline all set." John shook Mr. Carson's hand, "It's been a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Carson."

"Likewise, Mr. Bates."

After he left the room Anna turned to John, "What was that?"

"He came down the hall and at first accused me of trying to steal from your room." John gave it a once over, "I've got a thing for your posters of famous mathematicians and authors but I don't think I'll go for your papier-mâché model of the Globe Theatre over there."

"A student made that for me and I thought it rather good."

"I didn't say it wasn't. It just won't go with the décor of the room where I'm staying."

"Oh?" Anna folded her arms over her chest, "And where exactly do you think that is, Mr. Bates?"

"There's this lovely little place about twenty minutes outside of town where a beautiful woodland fairy lives." John pulled her closer, settling on the edge of her desk. "I thought I might risk falling under her spell and stay there."

"Did you now?" Anna looped her arms over his shoulders, standing between his legs. "And what if she thinks otherwise?"

"I can stay in the rental car."

"She won't allow that." Anna kissed him but pulled back in a hurry when the desk creaked. "I forgot how old this was."

"How old is it?"

"See that nick there?" John moved to see the chunk of missing desk. "I put that there my junior year."

"Oh shit."

"Yeah," Anna sighed, "Funding for American education is deplorable."

"If I watch the news correctly then I'd say the answer is to take from your military defense budget."

"As a former member of the military and someone still serving in the Reserves I take umbrage to that." Anna gathered her bag and a few things before leading John out of the room. "Personally I think if they took our union dues and stopped spending over a billion dollars in the education lobby and just funneled it back into our schools we'd be much better off."

John held up his hands in defense as Anna flipped the switches and closed the door. "Guess that teaches me not to mess around in American politics."

"It's the world's business, so they say." Anna arranged her bag and slipped her arm through his. "Though I'm more concerned about the dinner you promised to treat me to."

"I did promise." John bit the inside of his cheek, "But what if I took you to a lovely place and promised not to set your kitchen on fire again?"

"Does that mean you're cooking for me?" Anna shivered, "I'm all excited now."

"I thought I should since the last time I tried I almost burned down your house."

"It's more durable than that." Anna went out to the parking lot, unlocking her car and setting her things inside. "But since my fridge looks about as bad as it did when Mary and I shared a house, we should go to a store first."

"I liked the domestic sound to that." John pointed at his car, "I'll follow you there then?"

Anna shrugged, "You could leave it here."

"You mean like how I left my car at the garage last time I was here?" John laughed, "I almost just got an Uber here since I was pretty sure I wouldn't need a car."

"Why didn't you?"

"It's not exactly in the route of your average Uber. Or Lyft or any of the other ones I looked into before I finally just got the rental." John pointed at the car, "It won't get vandalized or anything if I leave it for the night will it?"

Anna shook her head, "The worst anyone's ever done around here is sneak a cow onto the second floor of the school."

"Sounds disgusting."

"It's worse because while the cow can climb up stairs it can't climb down so they had to bring in a crane." Anna pointed to the side of the building, "If you look there you can see where they had to saw out part of the wall to get the crane in."

"The worst thing we ever did was take apart the headmaster's car and leave the pieces labeled in his office."

"I only ever hazed cadets." Anna unlocked the door for John. "But it was just boot camp. Waking them up at three in the morning, yelling at them, and then forcing them to give me leg lifts until one of the guys cried."

"Until he cried?"

"I think that part was unintentional but I just made him switch to pushups." Anna pulled out of the lot, "It's what the military does."

"Drive you mad?" John shuddered, "I thought, for a time, I might consider doing it for the rest of my life but then I realized I was an idiot for thinking that."

"Why?"

John shrugged, "Because I realized I used the military as an escape from my wife and you shouldn't treat something that poorly."

"Some people think the military is full of baby killers and brainwashed patriots."

"Or violent killers with a license to do it." John nodded, "I once had a bloke in a bar splash his Guinness all over me because he thought I shouldn't be drinking with civilized people."

"Was that when you got out?"

"No, that was about a year before I did. When I did get out it was because I didn't want to disrespect the efforts of those dedicating their lives because they believed in what they did."

"You believed it."

"Not like that." John sighed, "But then Robert got me into his company and I found my niche."

"I thought it was your company."

"He sold me the branch he was managing in Dublin."

"Not very well if I remember Mary giving her father grief about it when he visited us in Leeds."

John winced, "He's got too big a heart to manage his money well and he makes some decisions based more on instinct than knowledge and that can be dangerous in large doses."

"So you bought that arm of the company?"

"And it's what you see now." John laughed, "I think Robert got the best end of the deal because he still kept stock in my company and then cashed out last year to retire and live in the lap of luxury with his wife."

"I think you'd go mad without anything to do."

"More than likely."

Anna parked the car, "Ready to surprise me with dinner?"

John grinned, "I think you'll enjoy it."

They went through the store together, Anna feeling an ease walking with him as they shopped like any other couple. But that was the moment her thoughts changed. Toward the checkout line he stopped, frowning at her.

"Are you alright?"

"Not here."

They paid for the items and moved them to the car. Anna climbed into the driver's seat and waited for John to situate himself before turning to him. "What are we doing?"

He frowned, "I thought I was making you dinner but I might be wrong. That's a distinct possibility."

"I mean about us? If there even is an us."

"Would there not be?"

Anna shrugged, "I don't know. I like what we've got so far and unless you experienced something I didn't then I know we both enjoyed sex but there's a lot more to relationships than that."

John nodded, "Do you want a relationship with me?"

"I think so but you're here, there, and everywhere so I wonder if that's the smart choice." Anna paused, "Not to mention I've only known you a month and I already have this impulse to invite you to live in my spare bedroom."

"What brought this on?" John held up his hands, "I'm not dismissing what you're saying in any way. I just want to know if I did something to give you the wrong impression or-"

"It's not that." Anna pointed to the bags in the backseat and then the supermarket. "We were in there walking around like a couple and I realized I want us to be that but I don't think we are. Not in the sense that we've ever said it or that we necessarily need to say it but I don't think I want to introduce you at a party as the guy staying in my house that I shag sometimes."

John let a grin slip, "Only sometimes?" She scowled slightly and he recovered, "I'm sorry, that was flippant."

"A little."

"Anna," He placed a hand over hers, "I don't know what we have or if we could call it normal but I've told you things I don't discuss with people. Things about my business, about my intentions with this town, about my life before all this… I don't want to say anything as foolish as 'you're the one' but I don't think I would do those things unless I felt something for you."

John stroked over her hand, "Something more than just a sexual attraction but, I assure you, that's there too."

Anna smiled at him, "I know and thank you."

"So," John nodded at her, "Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

"I think I'd like that." Anna turned the car on, "Now we'd better get going before that ice cream melts in my car instead of my mouth."

"I wanted it to maybe melt somewhere else." John whispered under his breath and Anna smiled.

"There might be time for that later." She held up a finger, "If you can make something decent and not burn my kitchen down."

"Challenge accepted."


	11. Far Longer than Forever

John proved not only capable of making a delicious meal but also of keeping any fire to the sauté process. Anna watched him, sipping on the wine, and setting the table in between snatches of conversation they managed. With the lights lowered, the used dishes soaking in the sink or thumping away in the dishwasher, and the fireplace crackling unnecessarily they sat together on her sofa.

Anna dragged her finger around the edge of her glass, frowning into the flames. A hand on her shoulder startled her and she jumped slightly. But the expression soon turned to a smile when she noticed John holding his hand away.

She took it, kissing over his knuckles, and sighed back against the sofa. "Sorry, I was miles away."

"Is it somewhere I'd like to visit?"

"I don't know." Anna set her glass to the side table and folded her legs under her on the sofa. "Mary and Matthew are probably moving to Pittsburgh. Matthew's got himself a job there and Mary's interviewing at three different private schools."

"I'm sorry you won't be working with her anymore."

"So am I." Anna hugged her knees close to her, "Mary's always been there for me. She was next to me on the bus when we went from the Colorado Springs airport to the Academy. She was there when we were sent off and stood by me when I suggested we take our degrees and gets Masters in Education so we could teach here. And I thought she'd be with me when I finished my doctorate but…"

"It's hard to realize that eventually people move out of our lives." John rubbed over her hand, "But I didn't know you were almost done with your doctorate."

Anna nodded, "The committee meets next week and when they approve it I'll be Doctor Anna Smith."

"And then what?" She frowned but he only smiled. "I get the distinct impression that you wouldn't be dithering over Mary leaving if you were happy here."

"I am happy here."

"You're comfortable here Anna." John set his glass to the side and took her hands. "When we discussed our biggest regrets, on this very sofa, you said you regretted not taking a chance with Mr. Napier all those years ago when you were in Leeds. And the day we met you told me you told me there were things you wanted to do you hadn't yet."

"You also said you had meetings on a Saturday and a plane to catch."

"I did."

"But you spent Saturday and Sunday with me." Anna narrowed her eyes, "Did you change your flights?"

"I fly private so that's not too hard and I moved all the meetings to Monday as a way to see more of the town." John grinned at her, "And more of you but that's not the point."

"Then what is the point, John?"

"That you don't want to be here for the rest of your life." John motioned to the house, "You love this place because it was your family home. You came back here to care for your mother and you stayed because you found a way to care for your town but this isn't for you anymore."

"It isn't?"

"No," John shook his head, "You're meant for more, Anna. More than teaching Freshmen and Seniors English and Mathematics."

"Would you rather I taught overpriced rich kids or college students?"

"I'd rather you find something you want to do and do it." John ran his thumb over her knuckles. "I want you happy and based on the expression that keeps passing over your face you're not. Not enough to keep you from having those thoughts in the dead of night that say you could be doing more."

"I could be doing you."

John held up a finger, "Don't distract me."

"Why not?" Anna's fingers ran up the buttons of his shirt, popping them loose one by one, "It's an intriguing prospect."

"Because we're here to address what'll make you happy."

Anna stopped, her hands going to cup John's face. "You. You make me happy. Happier than I've been in a long time and happier than any person's got any right to be."

"I think you've every right to be happy, Anna Smith." His hands went to her neck, holding her in place as their lips met again. "I want to make you happy."

"Then…" Anna nipped at his bottom lip, "Would you mind if we moved to the floor. This sofa's a bit old for what I want to do to you."

John hurried to the floor, taking Anna in his arms as she straddled him there. She worked to pop the last two buttons on the front of his shirt, managing the cuffs only with his help, and then tossing the fabric away. Her fingers immediately bunched in the undershirt there and she pulled away with a groan.

"What is this?"

"It's hot and I don't want to be sweating obnoxious stains in my dress shirts." He grinned, kissing over her face as she yanked at the fabric to get it out of his trousers. "Should I not wear it?"

"I think you should warn me about it next time. Or I should warn you I plan on seducing you." Anna gave a little victory cry when she got it over his head and leaned back to drop it ceremoniously on the ground. "That way I know how to better budget my seduction."

"Arduous process is it?" His fingers crept under the edge of her shirt, massaging at the skin just above the line of her jeans.

"It's a focus thing, Mr. Bates." Anna chided, gliding her lips over the skin of his jaw before using her elbows on his chest to push him down toward the floor. "I don't want to get distracted."

Her kisses wrapped the column of his throat and he sighed into her advances, his own hands relaxing their hold. They slipped down to land on her ass and held there. When Anna's fingers and tongue decided to map his chest his hands dug into her ass and Anna used the momentum to grind forward on the growing tent of his trousers.

John groaned and Anna slid down his legs, flipping the catch on his belt buckle as she went. It snapped loose and John jumped a little but Anna could only grin in response. And when she worked the trousers off his legs to form a line of clothing next to them she ran her tongue over her bottom lip at the sight of him trying to escape the confines of his boxers.

She tripped her fingers up his legs, brushing the fabric over his skin, and lifting the elastic edge to draw the boxers down his legs. Once she dropped them to join the rest of his clothes Anna set her knees on either side of his hips and took over John's mouth again. His hands worked to pull her closer with fingers tangling in her hair and others massaging the base of her spine before slipping under the open gap at the back of her jeans.

Anna gave over to his attentions, shifting and rubbing over him with her jeans while John could only hiss and moan into her mouth. One of her hands splayed on the floor by his head while the other worked lower to tickle her fingers at his arousal. He bucked in her grip, breaking their kiss to let out a grunt, and Anna applied more pressure.

His fingers tangled in the hem of her shirt and Anna released him to stand. Ensuring his eyes stayed locked on her, Anna lifted her shirt over her head before shucking off her jeans. She dropped them with a flourish before reaching around behind her to remove her bra. John's mouth dropped slightly and in the glow of the fire Anna wondered if perhaps it watered a bit. He answered her question when he forcefully swallowed at the loss of her knickers.

Ignoring the hands he reached out to hold her, Anna turned to give him a view of her back and settled on his chest. His hands only glided over her skin, almost tentative as he tried to anticipate her intentions, but when she dotted kisses around the base of his erection Anna cried out at the bruising grip. She responded by licking over him, using her fingers to knead and massage at his hips.

John's chest rose and fell, giving her a tempo for the kisses and licks she laved over him while her hands stroked over his legs. Anna paused a moment when she encountered the scar that roped over the knee and thigh of his right leg. She felt it the first time they had sex but had no time to appreciate it. Adjusting her body to lean over with her knees she took the time now.

If possible, he sucked air faster and deeper into his lungs when her kisses caressed and adored the scars. And when she turned the attentions of her free hand back to his arousal John moaned. The sounds, with the large A-frame of the two-story sitting room and high ceiling echoed back to drive Anna onward.

But John was not a passive participant and Anna squealed when his hands at her hips drew her backward. Her lips left a sloppy set of kisses up his hip that only turned feral as John's mouth descended on her folds. One of his hands continued to hold her steady at her hips while the other wrapped over her hip to tease and tantalize the nerves there.

Anna ground down, closing her eyes a moment to allow the sensations to zip through her and explode the colors behind her eyes. His hum against her, the tongue darting inside, and the fingers that sought the spot inside her that could send her other the edge had Anna crying out. But her hands would not stay idle and soon they guided him to her mouth.

It was almost a race that Anna did not mind losing. John's insistence sent her over the edge and though she took a moment to gather her breath, she moved her shaking arms under her and lifted out of his reach. He made a noise in his throat but Anna risked the rug burn over her knees to position herself just where she wanted him. She looked back over her shoulder at him and then sunk down.

A distinctive thump told her John's head hit the floor and the flutter of his legs before her indicated his body seeking comprehension and control. Anna rose up and sunk down again, joining their groans in glorious harmony before she set to rocking back and forth. Adjusting slightly, Anna gave over to gyrating and grinding before bobbing up and down.

John's arms wrapped over her waist and she could feel him at her back. His feet positioned on the floor, bending his legs toward her while his hands kneaded at her breasts. Anna rested her head back on his shoulder and succumbed to the kisses he lathered over her neck.

When he turned her head slightly their lips met again. Her hand guided his and both interlocked their fingers before delving down to address her bundle of nerves. It only took a few flicks of his wrist and slippery fingers to send Anna over the edge again. She cried out his name and John fell after her a moment later.

They lay on the floor, John still behind Anna, and stroked his fingers over her arm. He laid a kiss behind her ear and Anna put her hand over his. Turning her head slightly she kissed under his chin, bringing a finger to trace the line there, and sighed.

"This is one of those moments when I'm excessively glad I live in the middle of relative nowhere and alone."

"But you don't want to stay here forever do you?" John lifted his arm to support his head and they adjusted to lay facing one another. "As much as you love this house you don't still want it."

"I did tell you I'd been selling off parts of the property." Anna mimicked his motions, supporting her own head. "And the reality is, as much as Mr. Carson would want me to stay on forever, the district won't have the money to pay for the increase my doctorate would demand."

"So you'll leave?"

"I think I'll put in another year since I haven't told them I'd even contemplated leaving." Anna sighed, putting her other hand up like a claw to pull her hair back from her face. "I could justify lasting until Christmas holiday but then the age-old question comes in."

"Which is?"

"What would I do?" Anna laughed, "I can't go back to the Air Force and I don't want to go teach somewhere else."

"What do you want?"

Anna shrugged, "That's the harder question. I know more what I don't want instead of what I do."

"What do you want?"

She stared at him, losing herself in his eyes a moment. "You, John. I want you. For as mad as it sounds to want a man I barely know, I want you."

"Would it make you feel better to realize that I want you too?" John scooted forward, bringing his lips close enough to kiss her again if she wanted. "That I dreamed about you every night I was gone? That when I brought those plans to the city council last month I could only remember what you'd said to me? That when I designed the plans back in London I kept everything you said in mind? That I love you?"

"You love me?" Anna blinked, "How can you be sure you love me?"

"Because you make me feel the way no one else has. Because you bring me joy I've never felt before. Because," John ran the back of a finger down her cheek, "I can't stop thinking about you."

"And that's enough for you?" Anna caught his fingers, "That's enough to say you could love me forever?"

"Ms. Smith," John's lips teased just over hers, "I think I could love you far longer than forever."

Anna kissed him then. Her leg slipped over his hip and in the next moment she could not honestly say who pulled whom closer because all that mattered to her was that his erection grew hotter and harder against her. She rubbed herself against him, feeling the slick slide of the residue from minutes before, and gloried in his mouth with her arm around his shoulders.

John adjusted them, rolling her under while his knees took position between her legs. One of her legs remained on his hip and he held there, kneading the flesh of her thigh while his fingers plunged inside her. The welcoming damp there had John groaning into their kiss and using his other hand at the back of her head to better control the assault.

With one swift drive forward John impaled Anna and she broke the kiss to cry out. There was no teasing, no taunting, and no steady rise for pleasure this time. It was a frantic race where all they could hear over the harsh panting of their own breath was the determined strike of skin against skin. John's hips rutted toward hers, keeping up a frenetic pace his hands and mouth tried to match but failed in the most glorious ways to do so.

Anna dragged her lips and teeth over any part of his she could reach while fingers raked over his side or alternated to dig into his ass. He moaned at her ministrations and worked his own mouth down to her breasts to suckle there when his fingers found her nerves again. Their speed left no grace to their movements but when they broke a moment later it hardly mattered.

His head went to her shoulder, hauling in gulps of air as Anna managed a weak laugh. He turned his head, frowning at her but she only stroked his hair in response. When the frown persisted Anna gave him a quick kiss before speaking.

"If that's how you intend to love me forever, Mr. Bates." She kissed his cheek, "Then I'm all for it."

"Good." John leaned back, slipping free to gaze down at her, "Because I do."


	12. Pain

Anna grinned to herself, eyes still shut, at the feel of John's fingers teasing over her stomach. "I do hope you intend to do more than drive me mad if you're going to wake me up early on a Saturday, Mr. Bates."

"That depends," He kissed behind her ear as his fingers circled her navel before teasing just above her nerve bundle. "Do you have to go in for any meetings this morning?"

"No," She shook her head into the pillow, "I attended the last meeting yesterday so I'm free all weekend."

"Good," His lips started a path that sucked from her ear to where her neck met her shoulder. "Because I'm going to leave some marks in places where people might ask questions."

"Hm," Anna hummed, shifting her right leg over his to allow his fingers to creep lower. "Is that a promise?"

"It's a guarantee." John pulled hard on a path of skin at her shoulder while his fingers manipulated her folds. "I plan to use the early hours of this morning to ravish you in this bed."

"Then I'm your willing participant." Anna sighed when he finally worked a finger inside her, using gentle movements to leave her shifting toward his hand and rubbing her ass against his growing erection at the same time.

"And I'm warning you that I'll be taking my time." John growled toward her ear, nipping there when her hand latched over his wrist to try and push him faster. "I don't usually get the time to do this."

"And whose fault is that Mr. Bates?" Anna tried to tease but her lungs constricted with John adding another finger. "You're the one with all the phone calls and meetings."

"I'm trying to bring industry to a town."

"And I'm preparing for another school year where I'll educate the people you'll be hiring from the town." She dug her fingers into the flesh of his ass when he ran his erection over her.

"I guess we'll just have to accept that we're professionals with lives then." John paused and Anna almost clawed at his skin. "Unless it's too much for you."

"What'll be too much for me is if you stop."

John did not answer with words, Instead he used his thumb and her hand to drive Anna over the edge with his fingers stroking the inside of her. She shrieked into her pillow as John removed his hand from her. He stayed achingly close, the heat from his erection intensifying her own orgasm, and contented himself kissing her neck and shoulder until she recovered.

Anna turned her head, taking his mouth while her hand cupped over his cheek to guide her motions. His hands wrapped gently over her wrists and shifted them so he could move right behind her. When Anna caught of a glimpse of her ass cradled in the crux of his thighs she shivered in anticipation.

He paused, mouth a breath from hers. "Is this alright Anna?"

"I think I'm very much looking forward to what you're planning to do to me."

"Planning to do to you?"

"You've got me at a bit of a disadvantage here and I'm sure you can tell what it's doing to me." Anna taunted with a grind of her ass against him.

"It's what you do to me that's important here." John jerked his hips, sending his arousal sliding against Anna and her eyes fluttered closed at the feel of him. "And I'd like to take the time this morning to glory in that a bit, if it's all the same to you and you're alright with it."

"I'm more than alright with it."

"Then I'll continue shall I?"

"I'd rather you did."

John kissed her again, breaking only to trace his lips over her neck. His hands glided up her arms, massaging and working over the skin there. Anna spread her legs wider at the nudge of his knee against hers and settled into the mattress to enjoy the sensation of John just waiting for her.

One of his hands splayed in the mattress by her hips while his mouth ran over her shoulders and back. He traced her spine with tiny licks and laved kisses at the rise of her hips and the top swell of her ass. But Anna cried out when his hands took her breasts into consideration.

He molded there, kneading over the sensitive flesh before surprising her when he bit down near her ass. And surprised her again when he drew his pulsing erection back just to position his mouth over her folds. The hand formerly in the mattress only left an imprint there as it turned its attentions back to her nerves.

Between the dedicated work of his tongue and fingers Anna trembled into her second climax of the morning. This time John did not wait for her to come all the way back down. Instead he took position behind her and gripped her hips enough to drive himself deep inside her.

That motion brought Anna back to reality and her hands crumpled the sheets around her. John angled to plunge as deeply inside her as he could and the angle scraped along her most sensitive inner muscles. She writhed under him and tried to drive her hips back to meet his thrusts.

The rise, so familiar this morning, started again and Anna rushed a hand toward her center to help bring herself over. John's hand caught hers but instead of stopping her he interlaced their fingers and worked in tandem with her. All she could tell, over the blood rushing in her ears, was that her moans matched John's grunts.

He broke first this time, groaning out her name before draping himself over her. His body stuttered through the end, fingers flailing slightly to help her join him, and soon Anna's arms gave out with the peak. They collapsed together on the bed as their heaving breaths echoed about the room.

Anna turned to face John and traced his profile. He grinned at her, catching her fingers to kiss over them before tucking her close to his heart. She settled there, smiling to herself, and let her hand ease back and forth over his chest.

"Will it always be like this?" She whispered, tilting her head back to see John's face.

"You mean the two of u going at it like rabbits whenever we're close to one another?" John smirked and caught Anna's hand as she went to swat at him. "Or do you mean life-altering and earth-shattering when we go at it like rabbits?"

"Sometimes I think you're worse than my students." Anna pushed herself off his chest to sit up. "And I mean both, since you put it like that."

"Worried I won't be able to keep up with you?" John put an arm behind his head, using the other to trail his fingers down her arm. "Or are you worried it'll fade?"

"We did have a rather hurried start." She grinned, "I don't know about you but I've never slept with someone I only met the day before."

"Technically it was two days before and we'd spent all of those days together." John traced over her fingers with his. "We had the equivalent of ten or fifteen dates in a twenty-four hour period and even did domestic things I don't think many couples who've been married twenty years do with one another."

"Now you're just having me on."

"Anna," John sat up, holding her shoulders, "If you're worried about my commitment level then there's something I could do to make sure you don't worry about that."

"And what's that?"

"Well," John leaned over the side of the bed, digging around in the clothes piled there, "I was going to bring it up last night at dinner but when you were rubbing your foot over my leg and then took me in the back of your car I thought it wasn't the right time."

He righted himself and held a box out toward her. "There are people'll who say we don't know another well and maybe we don't but I don't care what they say because I know you better than I know myself." John opened the box and Anna covered her mouth at the sight of the ring, " _You're more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, yours and mine, are the same._ "

"You know how I love _Wuthering Heights._ "

"Something I'll never understand." John removed the ring and took Anna's hand, "I'd like to put this here but I can't until you answer a very important question."

"Then maybe you should ask that very important question so I can answer it." Anna grinned, "Because I want this on my finger before I have my way with you again."

John laughed, "Then here it is, Anna May Smith, will you do me the honor and glorious pleasure of being my wife?"

"What else could I ever say but yes?" Anna slid her finger through the ring and then turned her hands to cup John's face so she could pull him in for a kiss. "And that nothing would make me happier?"

"Those are good enough for me." John moved his hand to the back of Anna's neck and held her in place a moment while they kissed. He broke it, smiling, "What about that promise to have your way with me again?"

Anna took his hands and climbed off the bed, leading her to the master bathroom. With a flick of her hand she turned the water on in the shower and allowed it to steam while she looped her arms over John's neck. They swayed for a brief moment until their lips met again.

His hand slipped on the glass door and they laughed away from one another, Anna dragging John into the shower with her. He yelped slightly when the scalding water caught him in the side and Anna hurried to adjust the nozzle before moving toward John again. He scowled at the showerhead and pointed at it.

"One day we'll be on city water and we won't have to worry about the Fires of Mount Doom quickly followed by an attack of the Frost Giants while we shower."

"Are we moving somewhere, Mr. Bates?" Anna trilled, running her hands down his body to follow the water drops in their paths.

"We might one day." John's hand lodged in her hair, working as best he could to trail through the wetness. "If you want to move from this house."

"It's a lovely house."

"Yes it is. But," He backed her toward the wall, "I'd rather a slightly larger shower that doesn't have me working at breakneck speed to beat an old water heater."

Anna clicked her tongue against her teeth at him, "You've no sense of adventure. This is life in the boonies, John."

"Where I'm from we called it the back country."

"I'm sure they did." Anna pretended to care before running her lips over his jaw. "In Australia they call it the bush."

"And Australia is the only word I know in the English language where there are three 'A's all pronounced differently." John tried to respond but stuttered and slapped his hand against the wall to support himself when Anna's fingers wrapped around him.

"What to know another fun fact?" Anna let her kisses work over his chest while her hands caressed and fondled over him to the point where John gasped out his breaths. "There are only three words in the English language where 'W' follows 'D'."

"I knew that." He groaned when Anna kissed over his hip and then bit near the bone. "It's 'dwarf', 'dwindle' and… And…"

"Dwell." Anna sank to her knees and licked a stripe of water from him. "Like what I plan to do here."

She wrapped her mouth over him and sucked at him. John's hoarse cry only spurred her fingers to slip around and dig into the skin of his ass. And when he grunted while thrusting his hips forward she simply used her teeth to drag the length of him. Anna's other hand squeezed and slid over his erection before playing over his sack, finger the weight in her palm.

John bucked and moaned and when Anna could taste something more she stood. His mouth met hers with abandoned, almost slamming her back against the tile of the shower. She raked her hand into his sopping hair, noting the water losing its steam, and held fast as John lifted her with determined hands at her thighs.

Moving her legs about his hips, Anna settled for the instant John gave her before driving forward. Anna let her head fall back and relished John's immediate attentions to her neck and then breasts while their skin slapped indiscriminately under the drum of the cooling water. And when he released inside her it was all Anna could do not to immediately follow.

They stumbled from the shower, giggling and dripping. John wrapped Anna in her bathrobe, holding her close to kiss her. She handed him a towel, beginning to dry him herself before he snatched it from her grip. Feigning offense she tried to pout but John kissed it away.

"I know you, Ms. Smith, and you'll just use it was a chance to try and win a round three before we even make it to breakfast."

"I would not."

"But you would," He kissed her, "And I'd be your willing participant."

"I like the sound of that."

John grinned, "Willing participation? Me too."

"No," Anna shook her head, "The thought that you'll soon have to call me 'Mrs. Bates' when you chide at me."

"'Chide at you'?" John laughed, "What century did you fall back to?"

"The one where romantic heroes get the woman they dreamed about and the heroines get the men they dreamed about." Anna pushed some of his wet hair away from his face. "The century where you and I find each other."

"We already did." John turned to kiss her palm.

"Sometimes I think we always will and we always have. That it's a big circle and we're just turning in it over and over again to find one another." Anna went to say something else but heard the doorbell ringing. "Who in all of sanity rings a doorbell before ten a.m. on a Saturday?"

"Someone who doesn't realize you never even use the front door." John looked down at himself, "I'm in no fit state to answer that."

"I'll get it." Anna secured the robe, taking a smaller towel for her hair and drying at it as she walked through her bedroom and turned to the stairs.

The open stairs gave her the view of her sitting room, the dining room, her large windows that looked out on the woods that surrounded her property, and dumped her right in front of the door that only the uninitiated visitors used. The front door she really didn't like.

Leaving the towel in her other hand Anna unlocked the door and pulled it open. If her mouth could have hit the floor it would have in that moment. Standing on the small porch, hand ready to ring the bell again, was Vera.

Vera raised an eyebrow, her little snort of disapproval only raising Anna's hackles. "Guess I shouldn't have expected you to be in much better shape than this in the morning."

"It's a Saturday and it's before ten a.m. but I guess I shouldn't have expected any different from someone so obviously out of touch with social expectations." Anna took a breath, "What are you doing here? No, first, how did you even find my house?"

"That was an unfortunate accident since I came here looking for John." Her eyes brightened and Anna turned to see John, wearing only some sweatpants and a plain shirt, coming down the stairs behind her. "And I seem to've found him."

She tried to enter and Anna blocked her path. "I've not invited you inside."

"Aren't you going to?"

"I don't want to give a vampire like yourself free reign of my home so whatever you've got to say you say from there or you say it through the door. I'm not picky which."

Vera's lips curled and she gave a small snort. "Think you're so clever do you?"

"I think I'm enough to take you any day of the week and twice on Sunday since I'm sure the Devil takes a day off supporting you then."

"What are you doing here, Vera?" John stepped closer, filling the remaining space. "How'd you find me?"

"It's the town's worst kept secret that the industrialist entrepreneur is sleeping with the English and Maths teacher for the summer holidays." Vera gave a bitter laugh, "I guess we all need our hobbies on our holidays, don't we."

"You leave Anna out of this."

"I intend to." Vera handed a clipped stack of papers toward John. "Those are from my solicitor."

"About what?"

"About how we're stopping the work you were planning on starting in a month." She let her malicious grin widen, "I'm sure you know that I still own half of your company."

"No, you owned half of my company." John did not even look up from the papers as he flipped through them. "You ran your portion into the ground and I bought it out from under you."

"And in your haste you left a few finer points of the contracts amiss." Vera tapped on the papers and John looked up. "Those same points we're using to stop you and your plans here."

"What for?"

"To get what's owed me." Vera adjusted her handbag on her shoulder. "I'll see you back in Dublin, Batesy. I'm sure you'll want to be there when my solicitors start dismantling the little operation you had going here."

"You bitch."

Vera only shrugged, "I've been called worse." She smiled at Anna, "You try and enjoy the rest of your morning but I doubt you will."

Anna slammed the door in Vera's face, grinding her teeth at the sound of the other woman's laugh to accompany the click of her shoes over the boards as she walked away. Running a hand through her damp hair Anna turned to John. "Is she serious?"

"According to all this she is." John flipped the papers back together. "I need to get these to Murray as soon as I can."

"Murray?"

"My solicitor." John bolted up the stairs and Anna chased after him. "He'll know if she's just pissing in the wind or if she's being serous about this."

"She sounded serious." Anna dropped her towel in the hamper and watched John pull his cases out, throwing clothes inside them. "Can't you just call him?"

"No," John barely shook his head at her, finding all of his things as quickly as he could. "I'll need to meet with Vera's lawyers and solicitors myself or she'll just run rings around them all."

"You're not leaving for another two weeks."

"Plans change." John zipped one bag and then focused on the rest of his things for the other. "This is too big to lose."

"Lose what?"

"The town."

"The town?"

"Yes, the town." He stopped, staring at her, "Do you realize how much money my company's sunk into this? How much we'll be out if she gets her way?"

"Quite a bit I'd imagine."

"We'll lose it all." John opened his hands to the room around them. "Not just everything we want to build here but my business on three continents. That's thousands of jobs, Anna. I can't risk all those livelihoods."

"Why not just wait and see what comes of it?" Anna shrugged, going to John to try and stop his manic packing. "It could be a bluff."

"She's not bluffing. I may not've made the best decision of my life when I married her but I learned to read her." He zipped his other suitcase and hauled them both out of the room with Anna on his tail. "This is for real."

"John, slow down." His bags were already by the back door in the kitchen while he tried to find his incidentals scattered over the sitting room and dining room. "Let's talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about. I need to go and stop her before she ruins everything."

"We just got engaged, John." Anna grabbed him and forced him to face her. "We were just discussing our future together and now you're making a decision to leap on the next plane to chase down your crazy ex-wife?"

"This is my problem."

"This," Ann held up her left hand so the ring practically vibrated in his face. "This says it's _our_ problem, John."

"Anna," He covered her hands with his. "I've got to fix this before she blows it up in my face. I don't know how long I'll be gone but you've got to stay here. You've got a job that needs you in two weeks."

"You need me."

"I can handle this." John sighed, hanging his head, "I need to handle this."

"Why?"

"Because without this I'm nothing."

Anna frowned, "What about me?"

"You're everything to me but what can I offer you if I lose it all to her?"

"I'd give that woman the shirt of my back if she'd just leave us the hell alone." Anna thrust her finger toward the door. "But you're walking right into her trap. She's trying to reel you in again. She's broken the restraining order and gone and sabotaged you. Call the police instead of hoping on your horse to act the White Knight."

"The police won't be able to help in time." He raked his hands through his hair, "You don't understand because you've never built something from the ground up only to watch as a malicious harpy tries to snatch it all away."

"I do know because I'm watching it now." Anna took a step back, trying to control her emotions. "We're supposed to face these problems together."

"This is my problem."

"I'm not running this ring in the conversation again." Anna removed the ring and held it out to him, "If you're going back to fight her alone then you should take this with you because obviously you don't want me on your side."

"Anna?"

"I'm serious, John." She held the ring up, "If you really meant to give me this ring you'd take me with you or even buggering listen to me when I'm trying to help you solve this problem like a sensible human being instead of a crazy person. Because that's what you are right now and that's what she makes you do, act like someone putting out the fire all over themselves."

John's shoulders dropped, "I can't think of another way."

Anna placed the ring on the island, "Then you'll have to think of something else because I won't be pushed to the sidelines when there's trouble. I'm here for all times, John, not just the good. And if you can't trust that then don't let the door hit your ass on the way out of it."

He sighed, and nodded. "I understand."

"Do you? Because you're not making a decision if you just acted defeated."

"You're right," John faced her, "You deserve someone better and someone who'll turn to you when they need help. You need a better man."

"I don't-" Anna could have clawed at her hair with the groan of frustration that ripped through her. "I don't want another man or a better one, I want you."

"I don't deserve you Anna." John gathered the rest of his things, "I hope you can go back to your life and dream of a better man for you."

"I can't because there aren't any." Anna followed him to the door as he pushed his way through it. "Just let me help you."

"Goodbye Anna." John walked off her back porch and she could not bear to watch him drive away.

She collapsed on the floor of her kitchen, the ring still mocking her with its glint on the island, and sobbed.


	13. Bringer of New Things

Anna gathered the papers off the desks, sighing to herself at the sounds of running and shouting in the halls. Someone knocked on the doorframe and she turned. A smile broke over her face as Mary waved at her.

"Hey there stranger? Fancy a night out for happy hour, like old times?"

"Sure you can in your condition?" Anna nodded to the distinctive roundness of Mary's stomach but the other woman only waved off the argument.

"I'd risk it for you."

"Then you've no idea how much I need that."

"Maybe I do and that's why I asked."

"Then I'd be a fool to say no."

"You're a fool anyway but I love you despite that fact."

Anna grinned at her friend as she filed the papers into her bag and finished tidying over her classroom. With the lights flicked off she went to the doorway and hugged Mary about the shoulders. Mary did not respond with as much enthusiasm but enough to let Anna release the hug before following Mary into the hall. "Why didn't you tell me you'd be in town?"

"Because I didn't know until last night." Mary shrugged, "Matthew wanted to surprise me with a weekend away."

"Pregnancy really doing a number on you?"

Mary patted the evidence of an incubating human, "It's not been easy, that's for sure. I can't even enjoy the same foods I used to and I get these really abysmal cravings."

"That's rough."

"It doesn't help that I'm teaching the most pretentious snobs in the nation."

"So, mini-yous?"

"Ha, ha, ha," Mary punched at Anna's arm. "Don't forget who landed your ass on the mat every time we sparred."

"When my back twinges I certainly don't."

"Keep in mind that even in my pregnant state I can do it again." Mary gestured to the hallway, "Here on this disgusting floor if I have to."

"Then let's not forget who smoked everyone in shooting." Anna paused, pointing to herself, "I do believe I set those records."

"We're not on the rang now."

"Then I'll be even better in close quarters."

"Whatever." Mary managed a snort, "But that's not the record I'm interested in."

"And which record do you care about?"

"I'm wondering a bit about the record for shortest engagement ever."

"That was low."

"It was." Mary faced Anna in the hallway, almost a tomb after the rush for students to abandon it. "But no less true."

"I hope you're not lying about a spur-of-the-moment weekend away that's really just an excuse so you can consult with me about how my love life crashed and burned in a matter of minutes."

"No, we're really here for a vacation and because my parents are throwing a dinner party to celebrate moving here." Mary shuddered, "My version of that was a bottle of Jack."

"I remember the bottle of aspirin the day after better."

"Not the point."

"Then make it, please."

"What happened Anna?" Mary threw up her hands, "I know I can rock back and forth like a fricking see-saw when it comes to my romantic life but you're solid like the Rock o Gibraltar."

"What a dated reference."

"And what a way to dodge the issue here." Mary folded her arms on top of her stomach, "What happened?"

Anna sighed, shrugging up one shoulder. "One minute we were having amazing shower sex and the next his ex-wife is beating a tattoo on my door before thrusting a pile of legal papers at him and claiming she can ruin his company."

"And that didn't sit well with him?"

"No, and for the sake of the thousands of people who could be out on their ass if he doesn't figure out how to appropriately hogtie his harpy then I do understand why he ran off like a bat out of hell." Anna took a deep breath, "But he didn't even ask me. He just made the decision and left."

"After he put the ring on your finger?"

Anna nodded, "He kept saying it was his problem to solve and that I didn't need to get involved. That I have a life here."

Mary snorted out a laugh and then hurried to cover her mouth, "Sorry, I thought you said he thought you had a life here."

Anna scowled at her, "If you drove the two and half hours to get here just to have a go at me then I'd advise you not to let the door slap your ass on the way out."

"Anna, if I thought you meant that, I'd throw down with you." Mary put an arm over her shoulder, leading them toward the exit. "I understand where he's coming from but I'm on your side."

"To the bitter end."

"That's why we're friends." Mary tapped Anna's nose, "Now let's go find something greasy and full of salt so this twerp stops jamming his fist into my backbone."

Anna led them to the parking lot, "I don't suppose you'd say no to Mrs. Patmore's fine dining would you?"

Mary squirmed, "I don't want any of my former students to see me like this and shout, 'so he finally knocked you up'?"

"They wouldn't."

"Some might."

"Well I'm opposed to fast food on a Friday night since that's a bit below my dignity." Anna opened her car door and popped the lock for Mary to take the passenger side, "What little of it's left."

"You've got plenty of dignity." Mary pointed the blade of her hand at the school behind them, "You walked right back in there on the first day and acted like you're soul hadn't been torn from your chest."

"Thank you Mary." Anna buckled into her seat and turned the ignition, "I guess exposing myself to the horrors of high school on a daily basis really isn't nearly as horrible as I imagined."

"I can still tell when you're being a smartass."

"Then stop trying to cheer me up about being one of the shortest engaged women on record."

"At least it happened before he slipped the other ring on there or you'd have been the fastest widow on record."

Anna held up a hand, "Maybe we need to make a rule that you don't speak unless it improves the silence."

"How about we make a rule that you stop talking unless you can improve the silence."

"Every word that comes from me improves the silence."

Anna shook her head, "I don't think anyone ever told you differently in your whole life, did they?"

"Not sure I gave them the time." Mary waved a hand, "Mrs. Patmore's it is then. She'll at least try and give us some decent fish and chips and I want vinegar really bad right now."

"Mrs. Patmore's it is then." Anna steered through the familiar streets and parked outside the homey looking restaurant with welcoming lighting. "She does know how to help one feel at home."

"Doesn't she just though." Mary got out of the car, waddling slightly. "I feel like a penguin."

"You're missing your tuxedo." Anna slipped her arm through Mary's. "But I still like you… even though there's so much more of you to stand now."

"You can be so cruel you know."

"Oh, does Matthew just rub his hand over your stomach and say, 'there's just more of you to love'?" Anna mimed doing it but Mary knocked her hand away.

"I'll have you know that my sex life has never been better than it has since Matthew got me pregnant."

"Mary!" Both women turned and Anna covered her mouth to stop her laugh as a woman with the same bone structure as Mary and a man with her equally high opinion of herself came up behind them. "You're in public."

"And I'm also an adult." Mary turned to mutter to Anna, "Why do I suddenly feel like a teenager caught smoking for the first time?"

"That was an entirely different kind of public disappointment." The woman smiled at Anna, "How are you Anna?"

"I've been better but Mary coming for a visit's really making me feel much less under the weather." Anna hugged the woman, "And how are you Mrs. Crawley?"

"Please, you've known us for years, you can call me Cora." Cora slipped her fingers through her husband's. "Robert and I were just coming here for dinner since we can't get her fabulous cakes off our minds since the last time Mary brought us here."

"She's the best cook and baker we've got in the whole of Downton and maybe all of Athens County." Anna gestured to the door, "If it's not an imposition would you both join us for dinner?"

"That's so kind of you but we'd insist on paying." Cora simply glowed at her husband, "Robert's planned a party to celebrate our retirement and moving to town."

"Mary was saying you're having a party. Congratulations."

"It's just before Halloween and we do hope you'll find time to come. After all," Robert waved at the dusky town behind them, "You were one of our tour guides."

"I was and I thoroughly enjoyed it."

"Just as we enjoyed that dinner party you held at your house last time we were here." Robert followed his wife and daughter through the door Anna held open. "I do hope you're still there."

"I am. I sold off the last of the fields after they threshed the summer hay this year and now it's all being farmed by a lovely young couple. Actually, it's Mrs. Patmore's adopted daughter and new son-in-law."

"How wonderful." Robert paused, "You didn't cut too close to your house did you? John always talked about how secluded it felt to be buried in the trees and away from it all."

Anna swallowed, trying to keep the smile upright on her face, "No, I'd never sell that kind of privacy."

"Good. I always think people make a mistake when they give that up." Robert sighed, "But I guess John's got bigger problems on his plate of late than to worry about the seclusion of a house."

"I guess he does." Anna turned to the shorter, rotund ginger-haired woman who escaped the kitchen to wipe her hands on a towel. "We're here for a table and your delicious fish and chips Mrs. Patmore?"

"I've got one right in the back there." She turned over her shoulder, "Daisy, we've got four and they'll want fish and chips."

"How many?" A smaller voice called back from the kitchen and Mrs. Patmore did a quick head count.

"Four."

"Make that five servings, please." Mary put her finger in the air, "I'll probably devour two on my own."

"It's all the same to me and the more fish we can give you the less chance I have of losing the supply to Red Lobster." She tutted, "Follow me to your table."

They made themselves comfortable and Anna busied herself with the menu, though she already memorized most of it and really only needed a way to hide her face as Robert took the seat beside her.

"Have you heard from John lately?"

"He's been busy with his company."

"Busy with his ex-wife more like." Robert snorted, "That woman's got him twisted around her little finger. She twerks it and he comes running."

"Cocks it, not twerks it Dad." Mary cut in, shooting a look at Anna,. "Twerk isn't a word you want to be using."

"Isn't that what all the kids say these days?"

"Yes but with an entirely different meaning in an entirely different context." Mary turned to her mother, "Help him, please."

"Help me?" Robert frowned, "What did I say wrong this time?"

"I think, what Robert means to say about John, is that he's trying to work things out with his ex-wife." Cora shrugged, "We saw him just last week when we were in Dublin and he asked us to dinner with her."

"I thought you didn't like her?" Mary frowned, "Did I miss something?"

"I don't care for her but she was surprisingly civil." Cora shrugged, turning back to her menu. "It was actually surprising he was even with her given how the company's going."

"How'd you mean?"

"They've completely refused to fund any further investments until he can prove the solvency of those he's already got on the table." Robert sighed, "It's a shame too since he had the city council all convinced he could save the town."

"Weren't you a part of the investment?" Anna smiled up at the slight girl who delivered their fish and chips. "Thank you Daisy."

"It's no problem."

"How's Andy settling in with the expanded work?"

"Oh," Daisy grinned, "He and Mr. Mason are doing just wonderfully. They're looking into expanded stock and crop options for the spring."

"I know they'll handle the winter wheat well and then get feed corn at a good prince since everyone else's running it in the opposite direction."

"I'll let them know." Daisy looked over the table, "Waters for everyone?"

"I'll do a Raspberry Lemonade," Anna handed over the menu, "And some of the steak and kidney pie."

"I'll take the 16oz and a brandy."

"Robert!"

"Alright, the salmon and some ginger ale." Robert grumbled as he handed over the menu, "Nothing's fun to eat since my appendix burst."

"But you'll live long enough to meet your grandchild." Mary handed over her menu, "I'll take the 8oz with the garlic mashed potatoes and the asparagus."

"Just rub it in my face then with your red meat?" Robert whined but Mary met his gaze as she finished her order.

"Medium rare please."

"Of course." Daisy turned to Cora, "And you ma'am?"

"I'll take your salad with the raspberry vinaigrette and a side of the steamed vegetables."

"I feel like you two lost all of your fun when Dad's appendix burst."

They finished dinner and Anna bid the Crawleys goodbye before turning back to her car. Someone tapped her shoulder and Anna saw Mary there. With a shrug she pointed to Anna's car, "Willing to give me a lift?"

"Your parents making your slum it?"

"They're taking the last walk of autumn before it gets too cold and the arthritis my mother claims she doesn't have acts up." Mary got into her seat, patting at her stomach. "At least he's settled."

"Then you know it's a boy?"

"Had the scan to confirm." Mary grimaced, "Matthew wants to name him George Reginald."

"Wasn't Reginald his father?"

"I don't have a problem with that, it's George." Mary stuck out her tongue as if trying to get a taste off it. "The only people I know named George are in homes for the elderly."

"What about that guy who sings the song _Budapest_?"

"He's a singer, you can do what you want with that. But think about it," Mary flailed a hand. "He'll get his ass kicked everyday at school."

"Then you teach him to fight back." Anna grinned at her friend, "You're the one who put my ass on the mat so you'll know how."

"Ha, ha, ha." Mary deadpanned, "You're the worst."

"No," Anna drove according to Mary's directions. "I'm just immune to your intimidations."

"Too bad for that." Mary sighed, "Though I'm wondering how you're doing after what my parents said."

"I'm sure it's not as bad as all that."

"But if it is, Anna, then you've got to face facts." Mary shifted slightly in the seat. "You're not waiting with the hope he's coming back are you?"

"Part of me is." Anna stopped at the light, "But I'm not a fool Mary. I know that what I've experienced I'll never have again."

"I know it's hard." Mary bit her lip a moment, "A broken heart can be as serious as a broken wound and heal far slower."

"But it tells me two things."

"What?"

"First, that I've a heart to break."

Mary frowned, "I don't like where this is going. Do I need to talk you off the ledge?"

"No," Anna laughed, going with the green. "It also tells me that I've experienced a great love and there aren't many people who can say that."

"Not sure I'd want it in the past tense." Mary sighed, "Don't you have any other dreams beyond all of this?"

"Sure I do." Anna shrugged a shoulder, "I just know now that they'll probably not be coming true."

"Just…" Mary sighed, "Don't give up hope that something'll come along. Maybe not better than John or maybe not enough to wipe him from your memory but there's something more than this. You deserve better."

"Like what?"

"A better paying job, a love who won't leave you, and even a retirement plan that won't have your cracked and aging bones screaming at children in a classroom until you turn into Professor Bins."

"I'm not dying in my classroom."

"The way you're going now you might." Mary took a breath, "Just think about it. The future's as bright as your faith… as two well-dressed young men once told me when they knocked on my door."

"Did you listen to them?"

"Only long enough to thank them and shut the door."

"How nice of you."

"You wouldn't have listened either." Mary rolled her shoulders back.

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm in a desperate situation in my life."

"Aren't we all?"

"And given how your advice has gone in the past, I don't know if I should listen to your advice."

"Take it or leave it."

"I'll take that under advisement."

They drove in silence to Mary's parents' house and Anna waved at Matthew through the windshield. She kissed Mary on the cheeks, "Now go on, enjoy that sex life you say comes with pregnancy."

"Probably not with everything rolling around in my stomach." Mary smiled at Anna, "You're a good friend, you know that right?"

"I do. Which is why I want you out of my car and in your husband's arms." Anna waved her away, "Go on, get out."

Mary only laughed, leaving the car. Anna watched her friend greet her husband before he put a protective hand over her stomach. With a sigh Anna reversed her car and made the drive home.

As she reached her house she took a deep breath and went inside. She set her laptop on the table and stared at it before dropping her briefcase beside the chair and starting it up. Within a moment she had her CV up and edited before opening a window and typing in the search bar.

When she finally closed the lid, rubbing at her eyes, her email already dinged.


	14. Lost Girl

With a deep breath, Anna raised her knuckles to rap on the office door. It opened faster than she expected and gasped slightly as Mr. Carson raised his eyebrows at her. "Anna, what's going on?"

"I need to speak to you."

"It's almost first period. Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"I do and it's in your office sir." Anna waited and eventually Mr. Carson stepped back enough to allow her inside the office.

She waited until he took his place behind his desk and followed his prompting to take a seat in one of the chairs facing his desk. He put his fingers together and tipped his head to stare at her. "What can I do for you this morning Ms. Smith?"

"I won't trouble you with the details but I'll assume you're not ignorant to the fact that I've bee interviewing for new positions."

"I know that our district can't pay you what your level of education deserves and we won't be so foolish as to believe we could hope to hold onto you when we've not got enough to keep you here long term."

"I've loved my time here, Mr. Carson, and I don't want you to believe otherwise." Anna handed over a paper. "But I've found a good position as a professor at Ohio University."

"That's quite a step up for you from our humble offerings here."

"It's a step, Mr. Carson. Up or down is relative in space." Anna shifted in her seat, "I just realized that I need to take another step in my life and this is it."

"Well Ms. Smith, I'm sorry to see you go." He stood and held out a hand, "I do hope you're not going to leave us at this moment."

"No, I'll be working through then end of the semester and then I'll be starting with them as of January." Anna stood as well, shaking Mr. Carson's hand, "I do hope you'll be able to find someone to start after winter holidays."

"It might be difficult but we'll manage Ms. Smith, don't worry about us." He came around the desk, "I do hope you don't mind if I offer to give you a hug."

"I think, Mr. Carson, that would be entirely appropriate."

They embraced and Mr. Carson released after a moment. "I do hope you're not going to tell any of the students about it yet. Not until we've found someone to replace you."

"I'll be mum about it." Anna sighed, "And I do promise to give my best work until the end Mr. Carson."

"I'd expect nothing less and, again, we'll be sorry to see you go."

"And I'm sorry to leave Mr. Carson. But it's time."

* * *

Anna tapped on the side of the podium as the students, some of whom she recognized from her Downton classes, filed into the lecture hall. Her hand shook slightly as she gripped the sides of the podium and clicked the button to start the monitor. A shrieking bell echoed into the room and she blinked away her jump as she tried to recover.

When the screen blinked behind her she addressed the class, "Welcome to introduction to calculus. I hope you're all ready to hate this as much as my other students do and maybe, just maybe, pass it as a gen ed."

After her morning of classes Anna gathered her things and hurried to her office. Her key stuck in the door and she huffed against it as she tried to get the lock to turn. Someone tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to see a man standing there.

He waved a hand and pointed at the door, "Jammed?"

"It's been this way since they gave me the key." Anna tried it again but could not get the door open. "I think it's defective."

"The wood warps in the winter because of the humidity." He pointed at it, "May I?"

Anna stepped back, juggling the contents in her arms. "Be my guest."

"Thanks." He took the key and put his shoulder to the door. "Happens with old buildings sometimes."

"How old is this building exactly?"

"Older than anyone wants to admit." He urged the door open and gave a satisfied smile, "There we go. Open and ready."

"I may just have to institute an open door policy about it all then." Anna stepped into the office before turning to him. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."

"Alex Green, Advanced Maths professor." He stuck out his hand and laughed a bit when she had to readjust the things in her hands. "Sorry, should've realized."

"It's fine." She took his hand, "Anna Smith, new Maths professor here."

He pointed a finger at her, "I had a feeling you were from the other side of the Pond."

"The fact that you say it like that makes me think that you've seen the other side of it yourself." Anna waved her hand, "Come on in, so you don't freeze in the hallway there."

"Thanks." He stepped into the office but kept the door open. "I have. Did my PhD at University of Leeds actually. It only took a year instead of the two or three I would've spent if I did it here."

"I've seen that campus." Anna arranged a few things on her desk. "I was stationed at Harrogate."

"I went to a rager there once." Green laughed, "Don't remember much of it but I do recall needing a bottle of aspirin just to take the edge off the next morning."

"I can imagine. The men I knew there were pretty rough and tumble but they were good men." Anna shrugged, "Not met many like them before or after."

"Me either." He looked around her office, "You've got to find a way to personalize this a bit I think."

"It's still my first week so I can't say I'm quite ready to settle in yet since here of my classes this morning were half asleep and another two yawned more than my entire senior class did in a year."

"You just come from teaching high school?"

"And I'm wondering if maybe I should go back to that since I knew what I was getting into with people who only wanted to pass the class versus people who don't know what they need."

"It's the crime of our jobs." Green shrugged, "But the plus side is at least some of the people in our classes commit to it for life."

Anna smiled, pointing between the two of them, "How do you think we got here."

"Exactly right."

Anna pointed to her office, "Maybe I should get a plant then?"

"A nice little succulent." He pointed to the window, "Right there. That way you don't have to worry if it doesn't get watered."

"Knowing me I'd over water it."

"I'll remind you not to." He nodded at her, "Here's to hoping you survive your first week."

"Thanks."

"And don't let those little assholes mess you up. I'm sure you've dealt with worse than a row full of sleepers."

"I did once have a student bring a knife to school."

"Yeah?" Green folded his arms over his chest, leaning on the doorframe. "What'd you do?"

"Reminded him that I spent ten years in the Air Force and I could still disarm him." Anna cringed, "I broke his wrist and got written up but my principal gave me a secret commendation."

"See," He opened his hands, "It's not nearly that bad here. Plus, you get office hours no one uses that you can just take a nap."

"Is that what you do?"

"Sometimes."

"What an endorsement." Anna laughed and then checked her mobile. "I've got another lecture in an hour that I'd better prepare for."

"Just don't stress yourself out just yet. There'll be plenty of time for that later when you're worried about reviews and publishing."

"Thanks for the advice."

"Anytime." He went to turn the corner before tapping on the doorframe, "And I'll get you that succulent. I think you'd like it."

"I think I would too."

* * *

Anna survived the first term and even found her students enjoying enough of it to have a few using her office hours. The succulent on her window thrived and she even added a few new plants on the side of her office. The same office that had her pulling a sweater around herself as rain lashed the window.

Someone knocked on her office door and she pushed back from her large desk to open it. A smile came over her face when she saw Green standing there. He opened his hands to her and nodded at the window, "I don't usually have this chance but I think we should call a literal rain check."

"I think so too. I doubt your drive-in movie will quite as much fun when it's pouring out." Anna adjusted in her seat, "Are you proposing an alternative?"

"It depends, are you grading exams yet?"

"I've got two lovely teaching assistants for that."

"So do I but they haven't finished yet." He nodded at her, "When are yours finishing?"

"Tomorrow." Anna sighed, turning in her seat to flip off her computer and shut down her laptop. "All I've got to do is drive home in this rain and then curl up on my sofa next to a lovely fire in my fireplace."

"You've got a fireplace?" Green smiled, "When will you show me?"

Anna paused, tucking her things into her bag. "Not for a long time."

"Could I ask…" He risked a step into her office, "Why is that?"

"I had a bad breakup a few months ago and it left me a little wrecked so I'm not ready to let anyone into that part of my life yet." Anna took a breath, "I do hope that's alright."

"Having suffered through a bad breakup or two of my own, I can relate. However," He held up a finger, "I promise that I'm still around for whenever you think you are ready."

"I'm ready for dinner, if you're up for that." Anna pointed to the window, "Despite the rain, of course."

"Hm," Green took a deep breath, nodding, "Then I'd have to ask you if you'd prefer Italian or Mexican."

"Are you open to Japanese?"

"I could do that."


	15. Girl You're Alright

The door jammed and Anna sighed. She shoved her shoulder against it and tried the key again. Her flat palm slammed on the wood and she shoved but it stayed closed.

"Mind if I try?" Anna turned, hand to her mouth, when she saw John standing there. "I could be of some assistance."

"John?"

He stepped around her and tried the door. "Stubborn bugger isn't it?"

"It's the wood, warping with the humidity."

"It is unbearably hot outside so I could see that being a problem." John shoved again before arranging his stance. "I'm afraid I'll break it."

"They're sturdier than they look." She nodded at it, "Go ahead and give it a shove."

John put his shoulder into it and knocked the door loose of the frame. It groaned slightly but finally swung inward and he stepped away from it, handing her the key from the lock. "Yours, I believe."

"Thank you." She shuffled in place, "What are you doing here John?"

"I was hoping I could to talk to you." He glanced down at his shoes a moment, "And I guess I didn't realize you might have a class or plans or something and I-"

"I've got a few minutes I could spare you." Anna opened her hand toward the office. "Please?"

He smiled and hurried inside. Anna took a deep breath, hoping to steady herself, and followed him. With a nudge she put the door mostly back in place but left it slightly ajar so they would not be trapped. The heat of the office hit her in the face and she picked at her shirt when it immediately stuck to her body with the sweat beading down her back.

Popping a window open she clicked both of the old, stuttering fans to circulate over the room before pointing John to his chair. He only took the edge, clasping and unclasping his hands repeatedly as if he needed the movement to steady himself. She rolled her chair toward her desk to give herself the support of the wood under her before she spoke.

"How've you been John?"

"I've been alright." He tried to smile but she caught how his eyes did not crinkle, only fizzled instead of sparkled. "Took me more legal leg work than I imagined and more hours than I thought there were in a year but I finally got Vera away from it all."

"Did you?" Anna made a sound in her throat, "And you couldn't have dropped me an email or a text to that effect in the year you've been gone?"

John's mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally found the words he needed. "It was part of the agreement."

"What?"

"My solicitors and hers established that I couldn't contact anyone in Downton while they debated over the plans for the town. It was considered false hope and since they took all that bloody time to even decide if we would even push forward with the plans I couldn't risk the company." He rubbed at his hair, the line of sweat moistening his hair to hold it back. "I couldn't see a way out of it while we were neck deep in all the legal minutia and I…"

"You didn't see a way out of it." Anna shrugged, "I understand."

"You do?" His eyes brightened and it almost broke Anna's heart to see the hope there. "I'm so glad because I worried you'd-"

"You misunderstand, John." She put a hand forward to stop his gesticulating ones. "I said I understood, not that I forgave you."

His brow furrowed, "I'm the one who doesn't understand now."

"You left me." Anna gave a bitter guffaw. "You offered me the world and then, at the first sign of trouble, you scarpered without me."

"What else could I do?"

"Trust me to help you, to stand by your side through it all, to-" She stopped herself, "To give a bloody care about it all."

"Like I didn't?"

Anna nodded, "You didn't call me, John. What if I'd been pregnant or had your child."

"Did you-"

She shook her head, "But if I had you wouldn't have known. I wouldn't been on my own because you left me that way. Because you thought you had to do it on your own when that's not what love is. That's not what marriage is."

"I guess…" John swallowed and tried to clear his throat. "I guess, after my first marriage, I didn't know how to do it differently."

"And you didn't see the difference between Vera and I?"

"I did, every day, but there are some things ingrained in a person and it took…" John stopped, "I'm not going to make excuses. You deserve better than that and I'm only insulting both of our intelligence by saying anything else."

"John," Anna stood to reach over the desk and take his hand so he would look at her. "I don't think less of you because of what you did."

"I wouldn't blame you if you did."

"I knew why you did it and knowing you succeeded in saving your plan and finally putting that harpy in her cage has me happier than I could say but…"

"But you don't trust that I wouldn't run off again at the first sign of trouble?"

"All she had to do was crook her finger and you snapped to, John." Anna bit her lip, "And there was some talk, last fall, from Robert Crawley that you-"

"He did seem to get the wrong impression when we went to dinner together." John sighed, standing as well. "It was part of the agreement. Since Robert and Cora were moving to Downton she was there to make sure I wasn't discussing plans for the town or trying to undercut her."

"It was all legally necessary?"

John nodded, "I guess the depths of my gratitude came down to the fact that she didn't make that night as hellish as the nine months that followed."

"How'd you get her away?"

"For as smart as her lawyers were, and they're bloody sharks, they're not smarter than the restraining order violations or threats she made." John shrugged, "Eventually I shut her up with a buy-out and a permanent injunction to stop her meddling in my business affairs."

"That's good and I'm happy for you." Anna sighed, moving her hand to her back pocket as her mobile vibrated. "Unfortunately I've got a thing."

"No," John shook his head, holding up his hands, "I've delayed you long enough and I should let you get back to your Friday evening. I'm sure you've got plans and-"

Anna stopped typing midsentence, narrowing her eyes at John. "What makes you think I've got plans?"

"You said you had a thing."

"And you just give up like that?" She put the phone down.

"I didn't say I'd give up but if there's a boyfriend in the picture then-"

"So now I've got a boyfriend?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

She shrugged, "I'll admit I do have a date tonight and I guess he's-"

"There you go." John pointed at her, "I'm happy for you. I'm happy you moved on and I'm just sorry it was-"

"Who said I'd moved on?" Anna held his gaze but John could not answer. "Who said I could ever get over you?"

"I just assumed that you'd find someone better for you than me."

"There's no one better for me than you." Her jaw clenched and her teeth clacked slightly at the rise of emotion in her voice. "If I could describe what I feel for you in words it'd be like saying that you could go to the moon, with no hope of return, and I'd still love you."

"Anna I didn't-"

"There's not a day you weren't in my thoughts John." She took a steadying breath, "I could no sooner forget you than I could cut the heart from my chest."

"I thought about you every day too." His hand covered hers and Anna did not pull away. "I just… I don't know how I'll ever earn your trust again. Love is nothing without trust and I've broken yours so terribly that I don't know if there's hope."

"Who said there wasn't hope?"

Before John could answer there was a swift rap of knuckles on the door and their hands separated.

"There you are." The door opened and both Anna and John turned to see Green enter. He frowned a moment before an awkward smile came over his face. "Hello, I didn't know you were in a meeting. I'm so sorry for interrupting."

"No," John smiled, offering the man his hand. "Ms. Smith and I are old friends and we were just catching up. I'm John Bates."

"Well then I guess it'd be the gentlemanly thing to offer you my hand as well." Green shook John's hand. "Alex Green, I teach advanced mathematics with an office just down the hall."

"Does your door warp and jam as well?"

"Don't they all?" Green laughed and turned to Anna, "Are you ready?"

"Yeah, just let me grab my bag." Anna dug in her drawer for her handbag and motioned them both out of her office. She locked the door and turned to the two men. "All set."

"Perfect." Green offered a mock salute to John, "Pleasure meeting you John. I do hope you and Anna have time to catch up later."

"I'm sure if we've time then we'll find it." John nodded to them both, "Survive the heat yeah?"

"It is pretty awful out is it?" Green shuddered, "It's why I'd love to move somewhere like Seattle or Oregon. Get that smooth weather."

"I thought it rained all the time there?"

Green shrugged, "You know, every place has its ups and downs."

"Yes it does." Anna put a hand on Green's arm. "But we'd better get going or we'll miss our reservation."

"Right. Again," Green extended a hand to John, "Pleasure to meet you John and I hope you enjoy the rest of your visit here."

"I will." John leaned forward and Anna offered her cheek for an awkward kiss, "It was good to see you Anna and I wish you both a lovely evening."

Anna bit the inside of her cheek as John walked away and jumped slightly when Green rested a hand on her shoulder. "You alright?"

"Of course," She pulled a smile at him, "It's just like a blast from the past."

"Almost another life?"

"Almost." She looped her arm through his, "Come on. I'm starving and I think they've actually got functioning air conditioning."

"Amen to that."

With the air blasting at full power in Green's car, Anna caught herself staring out the window, only broken from her reverie by Green's voice.

"So, how'd you know that John guy anyway?"

"He sideswiped my car driving on the wrong side of the road." Anna gave a little laugh, left a huge gash in my car."

"What was he doing?"

"Driving on the wrong side of the road." Anna shrugged, "He'd let his attention slide and drifted to the wrong side of the road because he forgot he was in America."

"I thought I heard some accent on him." Green gave a little snort through his nose, "Did you give him hell for it?"

"I let him buy me a drink." Anna smiled, "It was an honest mistake."

"And you kept up with him, after that?"

"I showed him around Downton."

Green paused, "That's more than you've ever done for me."

"Please don't start this again Alex." Anna massaged at her forehead, "You know why I haven't."

"No, I really don't." He parked the car in the lot and turned to her. "I love you, Anna. I've told you again and again but you've never answered back for it. We've been dating for six months now and yet the closest we've gotten is a bit of a cuddle on my sofa or making out."

"I did tell you that I'd had my heart broken and-"

"By that John guy?" Green scoffed, "I knew it when I saw how he looked at you."

"It's not as easy as all that."

"Oh isn't it?" Green pointed out the back window, "You'd sleep with that guy but you won't even sleep with me?"

"These are two completely different things."

"Because you love him and you don't love me?" Green ground his teeth, "Here I was, all ready to propose to you, because you're the girl of my dreams and you're thinking about him right now aren't you?"

"Alex…" Anna ran a hand through her hair. "You can't just force someone to love you or care about you. You're not entitled to my affections, no matter how hard you try. I care about you but not like that and I don't think I ever will. I'm sorry but that's how it is."

"That's how it is?"

"What I felt with John I couldn't even gain for a moment with you. As hard as I tried I couldn't…" Anna closed her eyes and sighed, "I never felt it with you. Even though I wanted to I didn't."

"After all I've done that's what you'll say?" He shook his head, "Get out of my car."

"Alex-"

"Get the hell out of my car."

Anna opened the door, grabbing her things, and left him. He spun his tires a moment after she shut the door and peeled out of the parking lot fast enough that Anna wondered if she just imagined the smoke there. Her hand pulled her loose hair from her face, immediately feeling it sticking to her neck and turned toward the restaurant.

Walking inside she basked in the frigid breeze pumping through the building and pulled out her phone. Swiping through her contacts, she paused a moment before pressing on one. She brought it up to her ear, holding her breath, and then swallowed for words when the voice answered.

"I'm hoping I'm not too presumptuous and asking if you could give me a lift back to campus?"

"Where are you?"

"It's a little bistro called 'Grantham'. I'll text you the address."

"Okay."

Anna took a deep breath, "Thank you John."


	16. Antidote

She slid into the car, pulling her legs out of the way as he closed the door after her. The car hummed with the silent engine and the cool air made her shiver slightly but allowed the breeze to loose the hairs stuck to her neck. Anna buckled her seatbelt with fumbling fingers as John entered the car and followed her example.

He waited a moment before speaking and turned to her. "Do you want me to drive you home?"

"No," She shook her head, "My car's on campus."

"Were you going back to it after your date?"

"That's how Alex and I usually did it." Anna sighed, "Won't be happening like that anymore."

"Is it wrong of me to assume you're in my car and not his right now because of me?"

"You're the inciting incident, John, not the cause." Anna propped her elbow on the door and rested her forehead in her palm. "Could you drive me back? I don't think I've got the energy to unravel what just happened."

"Sure."

They rode in silence, John following Anna's instructions to the faculty parking lot. He pulled his car into the space next to hers and left it running as he put a hand on her shoulder to stop her getting out of the car. "Please, Anna, don't shut me out. If this is my fault then I want to do what I can to fix it."

"You'd have to stop existing for that to happen and, even then, I don't think it'd do any good." Anna covered his hand with hers. "What happened tonight was no more your fault than your intention. Frankly it was a long time coming… I just needed a strength to finally admit something to myself and to him that I hadn't."

"May I ask what that was?"

Anna stared at him a moment, taking a deep breath, "That I didn't love him. That I could never love him when my heart's still twisted in knots over you."

His breath caught, "Anna?"

"I told you earlier." Anna pointed toward the building. "That you could go to the moon, and have no hope of ever coming back, and there wouldn't be a day you'd be out of my thoughts."

"But after what I did…"

"Just because I don't forgive you yet or trust you entirely doesn't mean I don't love you." Anna brought a hand up to caress his face. "I think I loved you from the first moment I saw you and I couldn't do anything but fall for you."

His fingers slip over hers, "I felt the same."

"Then, maybe," Anna smiled at him, "We could give it another go?"

"I'm yours to command." John's eyes teared slightly as he attempted a smile of his own. "I know that I don't deserve you or a second chance so whatever you're willing to give me I'll gladly offer you. Without reservation and without hesitation."

"Then let's start with a first date then." Anna put her hand on the door, "You can take me somewhere for a first date and we can work our way forward again."

"Like we don't know each other as well as we do?"

"Like we're high schools tripping over themselves to fall in love."

John frowned, "Not sure I like the idea of myself back in secondary school. Those weren't my best years."

"Aright then," Anna giggled, "Or like my eight a.m. lecture students trying so desperately to stay awake and learn how to judge the limit when they've already reached theirs."

"I know I reached mine when I left you." He sighed, "But I got my head so far up my own ass that-"

"Hey," Anna placed a finger over his lips, "We're moving forward, not back. What happened, happened and while I'm not yet ready to forgive you for it I'm not going to hold it against you. It's not a weapon to be used against you at my convenience."

"Then what is it?"

"A learning experience." Anna drew back, "One we'll learn never to do again."

"I can do that." John paused as Anna went to get out of the car, "There's something I wanted to tell you earlier, before Green interrupted."

"What?"

"Part of the decision, for the company to move forward, is to hire someone from the area to be manager of the Midwestern region."

"Oh?" Anna grimaced, "It wasn't part of the package that got Vera off your back was it?"

"Oh, heavens no." John shuddered, "She's out of the company with an ironclad set of preventative measures to keep her as far away from it as humanly possibly without sending her to the moon."

"Good because I don't want that toxic waste of space near my town."

"That's the thing." John let his face break into a grin, "My team agreed that you'd be the best option to lead the division."

"Me?"

"You're the one who showed me the best sights, guided the design decisions, and made it so we've won over the city council with our plans." John opened a hand to her, "If you want the position it's yours."

"I'm not nearly qualified to do that. I studied English and Maths, not business."

"You're smart, capable, and more than qualified to help us guide the company where it needs to go in this area."

Anna blew out the air staling in her lungs, "I'd have to think about it."

"I completely agree." John winced, "I'm sorry I sprung this on you."

"No, it's not that." Anna waved a hand with a shrug, "It's just that I only started this job six months ago and while I'm still in trial period they do want to offer me a longer contract with a chance at tenure within the next few years."

"Is that what you want?"

"I don't know." Anna gave a nervous laugh. "I think I could spend the rest of my life knowing what I want."

"Really?"

"Well," She winked at him, "Professionally, anyway."

"Glad to hear it." John went for his door. "Let me get your door for you."

He opened her door and closed it before escorting her the few feet to her car. Once she unlocked the doors, he opened this one as well, waiting until she settled before closing it. Anna rolled down her window to look at him.

"I'm glad you came back John. More than I can even say."

"Then know that I feel the same elation." He snagged her hand, to kiss the back of it. "Until tomorrow evening Anna."

"Until then, John."

* * *

She pulled at the skirt, cursing herself for the choice and wishing she had grabbed something that showed a little less leg. But when she caught sight of John, walking toward her with his jaw agape, Anna complimented the skirt. He stopped in front of her, swallowing with an audible sound, and tried to find the words to even form sentences.

Anna stuck out her hand to him, "I'm Anna, Anna Smith, Maths professor at Ohio University."

"John," He stumbled forward, taking her hand, "John Bates. I'm an industrialist entrepreneur."

"And what exactly does an industrialist entrepreneur do in an area like this?" Anna opened her hands to the small town street around them, "There's not much here to industrialize."

"I disagree." He puffed out his chest, acting affronted, "There's plenty here to work on and enjoy."

"Are you coming here to save our little town, Mr. Bates?"

"I think I'm here to remind everyone why this town is worth saving, Ms. Smith." He offered her his arm, "I do hope you enjoy a good period piece because I believe that was the only movie playing in this theater."

"I do rather." She took his arm, "Old fashioned love only conveyed through longing glances and suggestion. So romantic."

"Then I made a good choice."

John led them inside and found seats near the back. The theater itself did not have many viewing the movie but since it was a week from release on DVD Anna found she enjoyed the quiet. They settled close to one another and even allowed a few minutes of the movie to pass before John leaned his mouth to her ear.

"I hope you don't mind the impertinence but I'm having flashbacks to the first time we watched a movie together."

Anna's breath hitched and she forced herself to stare at the screen. "Are you now?"

"I am."

"How could you since this is the first movie we've ever seen together?" Anna teased, biting her lip to keep her face breaking the impassivity there."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I think I confused you for someone else then." John let a whisper of a kiss land near her ear. "Please forgive me."

Anna almost gave a flippant answer before realizing the possible deeper meaning there. She turned to him, the glow of the screen leaving his face in alternating shadows. "I want to, desperately. I just don't know if I can yet."

"When you can," He pulled her hand to his mouth, laying a kiss there, "Know that I'll receive it with the humblest of gratitude."

They settled back to watch the movie but Anna could not get the thoughts of their first time watching a movie in her basement out of her mind. Or, if she was bing honest, not watching a movie. From the quick glance she snuck to John she thought his slightly labored breathing and the way he shifted his hips meant he thought the same.

Grinning to herself, and grateful the screen darkened for a night scene, she slipped her hand from his grip and rested it ever-so-gently on his knee. John barely jerked under her and Anna risked her fingers in drawing circles through the fabric of his dress trousers. His leg twitched and Anna ran her fingers higher.

When she felt particularly bold she trailed her fingers over the tented fabric of his trousers and left the lightest of grazes over him. John snorted, an attempt to hide the gasping breath he heaved into his lungs, and Anna bit back her grin. Her ministrations had him straining against the confines of the fabric and even left his knuckles white enough to see in the dark of the theater.

He leaned his mouth to her ear again, voice thick and gravelly as he attempted to maintain his composure. "And what will you do, Ms. Smith, when we're caught for public indecency?"

"They'd have to catch us and since I don't plan on leaving here until the movie's over and they don't have cameras in here I don't see that as a likely scenario. Moreover," Her fingers flipped the catch on his belt and pulled his zipper down slowly, "If you can stay quiet then no one'll even know."

She turned her lips to his ear, leaving a kiss there, "Can you stay quiet John?"

He nodded, skin moving against her lips, and she gave another kiss. "Good. Then I'll continue shall I?"

"No," Anna barely had time to comprehend the negative before John flipped the armrest between them up and slid her over to sit on his lap to face the screen. "I think it's my turn now."

Anna grabbed at the armrest on his other side as John's fingers trailed up and down her exposed thighs, slipping under the fabric of her skirt to brush near her hips. Her other hand covered her mouth as her eyes closed. The movie played in flashes over her eyelids but all she could see was John raising his hips ever so slightly to brush the thinly covered erection he sported against the fabric of the skirt that barely covered her while his fingers teased ever closer.

She forced her eyes open, pushing her back to his chest, and gritted her teeth against the sensations he drove through her until her hand covered her mouth again when he ran a finger over the fabric of her knickers. They were not especially attractive but since his eyes were focused on the screen ahead of them it hardly mattered. And when he used them to drag the fabric over her sensitive nerves Anna was not entirely sure it mattered what they were made of. They did the job and right now their job almost had her biting her own hand.

Shifting over him, Anna angled to catch his fingers in the fabric and pull it away enough to slide one of his fingers where she needed him most. She felt his teeth sink into her shoulder when his fingers worked around the fabric of her knickers to pull and stroke over her. John's moan muffled in her shoulder and shirt but only barely. And she struggled to keep her own keening whimpers to small gasps timed with romantic moments on the screen before her when his other hand slipped under the fabric of her shirt to knead at her breasts through her bra.

John's hips bucked into her and Anna flipped the other armrest up to rest her knees on the fold down seats on either side of them. His fingers left their work at her damp folds and gripped up at her hip to position her over him. They timed it with a swell of music when the leads finally kissed and Anna sunk down.

At that moment, with her thoughts hazy and eyes failing to focus on anything, Anna realized she would risk jail for this. The chances of getting off with a warning were slimmer now that John buried himself to the hilt inside with every rotation of her hips and drive of his. But even if they spent a night in jail Anna thought each rise and fall of her own pleasure worth the small cell and smelly cot she imagined.

John's hand abandoned her breasts and returned to take the place on her hip while his other fingers took over their former occupation. She gyrated and writhed shamelessly toward his fingers and clamped her fingers over her nose while biting into her mouth when she tumbled over the edge. He followed soon after, biting into the marks on her shoulder as his body stuttered to completion.

They sat there, chests heaving, and Anna thanked whatever composers decided this particular movie needed such a rousing score. Her head tipped back to his shoulder and John's lips moved over her neck to reach her each. Shivers ran down her spine as he whispered to her.

"I won't take this as forgiveness, Ms. Smith, but I'm going to assume I'm on the right path to get it."

"Most definitely Mr. Bates." Anna turned to kiss him for the first time in such a long time. "Most definitely."


	17. Take this to Heart

Arranging the things on her desk Anna frowned, lifting up another pile before setting it back where it was. She ran her fingers through her hair as someone knocked on her open door. Turning she held back a groan and forced a smile to see Green there.

"How can I help you Alex?"

"I think the better question might be how I can help you." He pointed to her desk, "Looking for something?"

"I think I misplaced the test key was I was writing the other day and I don't want to have to start all over again."

Green shrugged, "You can do what I do and just use the same test every year."

"I don't trust students not to cheat." Anna shrugged, "I can rewrite it. I was only partway through it anyway and it won't take much more effort to just redo it."

"But then there goes your evening."

"We all make sacrifices for work I guess." She pulled the papers into her bag, filing them appropriately before nodding at him, "Are you looking forward to your end of term exams?"

"I think I'm looking forward to two weeks vacation before fall semester starts." Green took a step into her room and closed the door slightly. "I actually came here to apologize for being such an ass the other night."

"I think that wouldn't be entirely inappropriate." Anna set her bag on her desk, fitting her laptop inside it. "But I understand your frustrations and it was fair. I didn't exactly treat you as well as I could've and that deserves an apology on my part."

"Then we can exchange apologies and call it all good then?" Green held out a hand and Anna shook it.

"I hope so."

She went back to making sure her office was in order before stepping toward the door. Green opened it for her and stood by her side as she pulled it closed to lock it. Anna just tucked her key ring back into her pocket when Green spoke.

"So are you staying with us into the next semester?"

Anna paused, fiddling over the keys, "What gives you the impression I'm not?"

"I heard a rumor round the water cooler."

"Our offices don't have one of those."

He shrugged a shoulder while thrusting his hands into his pockets, "Then I heard it from one of the office secretaries when you took your meeting with the Dean last week."

"A new opportunity's arisen and I think I owe it to myself to look into it."

"But you're doing good work here." Green motioned toward his office, "And I'm right down the hall so…"

"Maybe that's a better reason to leave." Anna shrugged, "It's got to be hard to realize that we didn't work out and then still have to see one another at faculty meetings and conferences."

"I'm an adult and I think I can take it."

"Then I applaud you but I…" Anna shook her head, "At the end of the day, much as I enjoy teaching, it's not what fulfills me."

"And what does?"

"I'm still hoping I find it."

"I think you already did and you're just not saying because you're embarrassed it's that John guy." Green's eyes hardened, "Does he fill you?"

"That's none of your business and even if he did this has nothing to do with him."

He scoffed, "You can't possibly tell me that old man makes you happy."

"If you must know then yes, he makes me very happy." Anna put up a hand, "Why am I even having this discussion with you?"

"Because I still care about you Anna and I think you care about me."

"I do care about you. I wish you all the happiness in the world and I hope you find your job and life wonderfully blessed but I don't care about you the way you want me to."

"I think you're lying." Green's hand reached out and snatched her arm. "I think you're pretending not to feel for me what you really do, deep down."

"And I think you need to let go of my arm before I show you what the United States Air Force taught me to do with people like you." His hand released and Anna stepped back, "I'm sorry to inform you, Mr. Green, but I'm leaving this job and we're not a thing. We weren't ever really and we'll never be."

"And you don't feel the least bit sorry do you?"

"I do. I feel sorry that I hurt you but I won't apologize for being true to my feelings, even if they're not for you."

They stood in the hallway another moment before Green snorted and walked away. Anna sighed, going to turn the other direction herself, when she realized she left her bag in the office. Letting her neck fall back with a groan she went back to her door and jammed the key into the lock before using her shoulder to try and force the door.

A voice cleared their throat next to her and Anna sighed with relief to see John. He pointed to the door and she stepped aside. With a swift push he managed to free the door and let them both inside.

"Thank you." Anna reached for her bag on the desk and pulled it to her shoulder. "I thought I'd be trapped her all night trying to get that thing open."

"Have you got a lot to do?"

"Enough." Anna paused, narrowing her eyes, "Why'd you ask?"

"Because I might want to take you out but if you're busy I'll schedule another night."

"Still wanting to get to know me Mr. Bates?" Anna leaned back on her desk, folding her arms over her chest as she allowed a smirk to take over her face. "What else is there to know?"

"Well I get to see your domain." John put his hand on the knob, firmly closing the door and turning the lock to leave Anna's breath catching in her throat. "And a woman as powerful and beautiful as yourself should be appreciated in her natural habitat."

"Is that so?" Anna opened her arms enough to drop her bag on her desk chair.

"It is."

"And what, pray tell, could one surmise from this examination of my office?"

John stalked closer to her, planting his hands on either side of her body to grip the edge of the large wooden desk, and brought his lips to her ear. "That you're intelligent, quick, and dedicated. That you're organized, focused, and invaluable."

"I like all of those words." Anna whispered against his ear as John stepped closer and she bit the inside of her cheek when he pressed at her abdomen. "But I don't think those are the words you want to say right now."

"They're not." He growled against her ear, "I want to take you, all over this office, and make this space ours."

"That's very forward of you." Anna gripped the edge of the desk, her hands just brushing his, "I haven't even forgiven you yet."

"Consider this me earning back your trust." John slipped on hand to her trouser-clad leg and rasped his fingers over it. "Would you mind?"

"Not at all." Anna whimpered when his fingers gripped her ass and lifted her to the edge of the desk. "Far as I can tell this is the sturdiest piece of furniture I've ever used."

"Then let's use it." John worked toward her belt and tugged at it to slide Anna toward the edge of the desk. "Mind if I take this off?"

"Are you going to use it on me?"

"Never," He slithered the belt through the loops and let it drape over her office chair. "It's the professor's job to punish students."

"Is that what you are?"

"No." Popping the button on her trousers he pulled the zipper down to expose her stomach and knickers to him. "We're two consenting adults about to have illicit sex in your office. People do it all the time."

"Not sure that's necessarily true."

John paused, fingers about to tug the tails of her blouse from her trousers, "Should I stop then?"

"I didn't say it couldn't be true, John." Anna leaned back, hands running over the edges of the desk to gain a better grip. "I just said it wasn't necessarily true."

"So I'll continue, shall I?"

"I'd rather you did before the custodians or the Dean come by."

"That's part of the fun," The buttons of her blouse opened and John pushed the shirt back enough to leave her bra and chest open to him. "Like when you had your way with me in the back of the cinema."

"Here they call it a movie theater."

"And spell it wrong I'd imagine." He tsked at her, fingers teasing over her skin to have Anna struggling against the tickle. "And you, an English teacher, I'm almost sorry for you."

"Check the postal code, we're in America and we follow different rules."

"And misspelling everything in the process." John dipped down to pull her shoes off and tug enough at her trousers to get them off her legs. "Something as simple as 'neighbour' becomes so unglamorous."

"We're just getting rid of 'u'." Anna sighed and then growled when John's fingers stopped entirely. She looked at him and frowned, "What?"

"I do hope you never want to get rid of me." He stepped between her legs but only cupped her face with delicate hands. "Because I could never be without you again. It was torture the first time and while I know it was my fault I don't think I'd survive another round."

"I couldn't either." Anna pulled his forehead to rest on hers. "I don't ever want to be without you again either John. I couldn't bear it."

"Then I promise I'll never leave you again." His lips ghosted over hers, hands massaging at the back of her head. "This is where I belong and this is where I'm staying."

"Then stay with me." Anna moved the fraction of an inch it took to bring their lips together and before she knew it her blouse joined her trousers on the back of her chair while John's fingers eased her knickers down her legs.

In all the ways Anna thought she would use the desk in that office, this was not one of them. But she hurriedly considered it the best way to use the desk. Especially when John dropped to his knees on the hard floor and immediately set to work.

His fingers and lips worked over her with the utmost care. Teasing strokes and fulfilling sucks had Anna whitening her knuckles as they dug into the edges of the desk. The bite of the angle of the wood into her hands just tipped the pleasure John drove her two when two of his fingers worked inside her while his tongue and teeth played at her nerves. And when he sent her over it was all Anna could do to keep her voice down and not let her colleagues know that her former fiancé made her climax in her office.

Anna lay back a moment as John stood. One of his hands came up to her neck, gliding there slowly enough to bring Anna back around, and she grinned at him. Her own hands looped over his neck and she pulled herself up enough to kiss his lips. The lips that still tasted like her and had Anna licking every bit of scent she could from him.

She bucked against him, one of her legs wrapping over his hip to pull him closer, and sighed into his mouth at the feel of him rising to the occasion. Anna worked her hands to his trousers, snapping the belt loose of the loops and yanking down his zipper. For a split second she worried she broke something but when her hand ghosted over his erection as it strained the fabric of her boxers she realized she could not care less.

The desk wobbled beneath them as John drove toward her grip and Anna winced. John stopped, eyes going wide but Anna only looked to the side a moment before pushing John backward enough for her to slip off the desk. Taking a deep breath she turned and held the edge of the table again.

For the beat that John delayed Anna feared the worst. But when she felt the fabric of his shirt running over her back, buttons catching and imprinting on her skin while his ready erection slid over the globes of her ass, Anna closed her eyes to better focus on the euphoria of being wrapped in him. Her legs spread wider and when John kissed over her shoulder he drove into her.

One of his hands worked over her hair, massaging the roots and brushing it to the side so he could leave kisses covering her neck, while the other came around to massage her breasts. Anna worked her hips back toward him using her grip on the desk to guide her motions, and keened when John drove the air from lungs with his punishing pace. His hand at her breasts teased and nipped through the fabric while his teeth nipped to the beat of his thrusts.

Risking a look over her shoulder Anna saw John's face tightening in concentration while he plunged to the hilt inside her. Anna moaned at the view of him sinking into her and closed her eyes to remember it forever. His hand at her neck brought her back to rest on his shoulder and guided his lips to kiss the column of her throat. She turned into the kisses while his fingers frantically pressed and rubbed her to bring her over the edge for the second time.

John finished not long after, keeping her close as he did, and rested his head on her shoulder while his fingers tangled in her hair. Anna laid her arm over his, fingers tracing the patterns of his veins in his hand, and sighed. They adjusted enough for her to pull loose and reach over her desk for the tissue box.

She passed him a few with a smile before using some for herself. "I don't know what the custodian'll say when they empty the trash. Or come in here at all."

"Crack a window and no one'll even notice."

"Not sure that's true." Anna slipped her legs into her knickers and then pulled her trousers up while John finished buckling his belt. "But it'd be worth it to see if they're willing to say something about it."

"Like it hasn't happened before."

Anna held up a hand, "I don't want to think about the idea that there've been other people having sex on this desk."

"The person who has it after you'll use it without knowing." John stopped, "That is, if you're still taking the job offer I made."

"I spoke to the Dean and we've arranged for me to work out the fall semester, since that's the end of my year contract, and then I'm all free." Anna buttoned up her blouse and tucked it back into her trousers as John fit her belt back through the loops. "She was sorry to see my go but agreed better now than when they've gotten too used to me being around."

"Speaking of that then," John bent, fetching her bag, and handing it over before unlocking the door. "Would you have some time this weekend to see the offices you'll be getting?"

Anna finished tightening her belt. "Are they done?"

"The offices are. We're almost finished with one of the factories and we'll start production there within the month."

"I thought it would take longer."

John shook his head, "We had it all in place and ready to go before Vera stepped in. It only took a bit to get it all back to fighting fit but now we're ready to go again."

"Then I'd be glad to see the offices." Anna snuck a peek at her desk before giggling, "And I'll know I'm the first to use the desk."

"And that's a great comfort to you?" John opened the door and Anna smiled at him.

"A very great comfort to me."

* * *

Anna whistled at the office and took a twirl. "It's wonderful."

"We followed the guidelines that would keep the bones of the place," John thumped a fist on the wall. "But we wanted the interior to feel open and welcoming."

"Combination of the old and the new then?" Anna ran a finger over her desk and rested her handbag on the surface before sitting in the chair. "I like this chair."

"Do you?" John leaned on the edge of the desk, folding his arms over his chest. "I saw the one you had in your office and almost cried for you."

"It rolled, that's all I needed."

"It was threadbare and I could swear I heard springs popping whenever you sat down."

"You're just being dramatic." Anna chided and stood, taking another turn of the office while John remained by the desk. "It was functional and in a position like that function over fashion is critical."

"Then be glad this new job works both fashion and function into its design." John took her chair and closed his eyes with a drawn out sigh. "This is heavenly."

Anna bit back a grin as she sidled close to him. "Do you know what would be more heavenly?"

"What?" John did not open his eyes until Anna opened his belt. "Anna?"

"You did say they're not doing an construction today right?" The belt fell to the side and the zipper left his trousers gaping so she could tug them down his thighs to bunch by his knees. "If we're all alone then I think we should break in the chair."

"We're exposed," John pointed to the large windows of her office behind them and those letting in all the natural light. "Anyone could walk by and-"

"I thought you said that made it all the more interesting." Anna licked her lips and worked her fingers under the elastic band of his boxers to tug them down to join his trousers. "Are you still interested John?"

"I think-"

"Good enough for me." Anna went to her knees and took him in her mouth.

Digging her fingers into the flesh of his hips, Anna guided her motions. Her teeth scrapped over him while her tongue wrapped over him or licked with the flat over the underside of him. Switching between deep draws and shallow swallows left John groaning and wrecked before her.

Smiling to herself she risked a firm hold with one hand when she slipped it down to grip his base. She squeezed intermittently, leaving him bucking at the unpredictability, and dragged out strokes in tandem with her mouth. When he rose to respond she released him and rolled his sack in her fingers. The sound that tore from his throat strangled and sent Anna sucking harder at him.

But just when she could taste him John's hands grabbed at her arms. He lifted her, kissing over her while pawing a bit at her skirt. Anna lifted it and pushed her knickers to the side to leave her open to him. With an adjustment she sunk down on him.

They both paused, their chests filling to their fullest as they realized the significance of the moment. Their eyes met for the first time while in the act and Anna traced her fingers over John's face. All the frenzied fanaticism of their joining lost to the stillness of being wrapped in one another.

His hand came to the base of her spine but only to hold her closer. She tightened the grip of her thighs to bring herself toward him as if they could sink into the skin of the other. And when Anna's hands held John's cheeks in place he finally moved.

Not the frenetic rush of the back of the theater while they tried to tempt one another back to the edge they forgot. Not the illicit affair in her campus office with her ex-boyfriend a few doors down the hall. But the slow and joyous reunion of two people moving toward a future together.

Anna bounced a bit between rocks of her hips and John kept them steady with both feet on the floor while his hands sculpted her body. They kissed when they did not haul in deep breaths and took breaths when they could bear the separation from one another. With closed eyes and steady motions they lost themselves in each other.

Despite their desire for the slow, steady climb the moment sent them to their end. First John and then Anna. She rested her head on his shoulder, the tremors and shakes of her body reflected in the shivers of his, and finally found her breath. Her hand at his shoulder lifted her to look in his eyes before she brushed hair from his forehead.

"I forgive you." John could not speak, only bury his head in her shoulder. She felt the sobs rack through him and smoothed her hand over his back. "I forgive you John."

When he settled again, and they arranged themselves to look more publically appropriate, John set a small kiss on Anna's cheek. "Thank you."

"I realized that I want nothing more than to share my life with you." Anna pointed to the office, "Someone who gives me something like this, without hope for return, is someone who truly means what they say."

"I do." John took her left hand, feeling her ring finger, and finally looked into her eyes. "I once put a ring here, with the promise that I wanted to love you longer than forever. I'd like to make that promise again, if you'll accept it."

Anna smiled and nodded as John went down on one knee and drew a box from his trouser pocket. Opening it he cleared his throat, "Anna May Smith, will you do me the great honor of agreeing, again, to be my wife?"

"Of course I will." Anna held out her hand and allowed John to slip the ring over her finger before he rose to kiss her. "I couldn't say anything else."

"I'd hoped not but I wasn't going to press you." John took her hand, fingering over the ring, "I never thought I could be as happy as you make me, Anna."

"I didn't think so either." Anna grinned, "But I realize I've never been as happy as I am at this moment."

"I'm going to spend the rest of my life making you happy, Anna. I promise you that."

"I'll hold you to it."


	18. Marry You

Mary adjusted the veil on Anna's head and sighed again. Anna turned to her, or tried to until Mary set her head forward toward the mirror again. "Hold still of I'll stick you with this pin."

"Then stop sighing your disapproval. Either speak or stay silent."

"I just think you should've planned something a little more grand."

Anna tried to hold back her laughter, "You mean like an obnoxiously large dance hall where half of your extended family flew in and got drunk on the open bar before starting that argument in the back?"

"That's not fair." Mary held up a warning finger in the mirror, "English people don't argue. They debate hotly and then discuss how tempted they get to complain."

"Whatever. They still drank you dry before midnight and then went bar hopping."

"It's called pub hopping."

"Only when done in the UK. Otherwise it's bar hopping and they got themselves kicked out of one for starting a fight over who's better, Manchester or Chelsea."

"Chelsea, obviously."

Anna scowled, "You're not supposed to get me riled up on my wedding day."

"I thought the whole point was to get riled up on the wedding day to guarantee you'd see some action in the bedroom later."

"We don't have issues with that."

"The new water heater you installed would agree with you." Mary stepped back, "Alright. It should take an act of God t move your hair and veil so I consider my work done."

"Perfect." Anna took a little turn in the mirror, "What do you think?"

"That you deserve better than setting yourselves up in front of a judge."

"And I think it's better to have the right man than the right wedding."

Mary frowned, "But if you can have both…?"

"It's fine and it's how we want it." Anna stepped off the stool with Mary's help. "I don't want to make a fuss and neither does he."

"This is the kind of thing to make a fuss about, Anna."

"He already had the muss and fuss and we didn't need that. Besides," Anna cringed, "If we do it like this then I don't have to anger all those people who'd be torked they didn't get an invite."

"Was this just a competition to see who could invite the least amount of people then?" Mary dodged Anna's poke and hurried to cover her as the door opened. "Announce yourself."

"It's just me, Mary."

"Enter then," Mary stepped back as Matthew came into the room, holding a baby sucking on a teething ring. "I think he needs a feed."

"When doesn't he need a feed?" Mary hefted the baby from Matthew's arms, "He's a right hog and gives me no time to rest."

"You'd go mad with nothing to do." Anna lifted her train but Matthew came to her aid, holding it up, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." He smiled, "I do hope I'm still the one walking you down the aisle."

"The only other options were Mr. Carson or Tom and as much as I enjoy both of them I don't really feel the kind of kinship that would have me wanting them to escort me down the aisle." Anna looped her arm through Matthew's and looked over at where Mary managed the baby in her arms. "Will we have to wait for the ring bearer to finish?"

"G.R. is perfectly ready to execute his duties." Mary bent at the knees to retrieve something from her bag and held up the box. "Though normally this is the job of the best man or something."

"We thought you'd want to feel included." Anna waited for Matthew to open the door and leaned over to Mary, "How long've you been calling him 'G.R.'?"

"Long enough that Matthew stopped rolling his eyes about it."

"It sounds like your private school's been rubbing off on you."

"Hey," Mary shook the ring box at Anna, "I can still lose these."

"Let's get you married then shall we?" Matthew hurried back to Anna and walked her out of the dressing room toward the main office.

Cora and Robert paced in the hall and Cora covered her mouth with her hand, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "Oh, it's beautiful Anna."

"Thank you." She held up the edge of the dress. "It fits wonderfully."

"After a few alterations." Mary muttered and Anna shot her a glare. "What? It'd have to be altered for your height anyway."

"The point is," Anna interrupted, taking Cora's hand. "Thank you for the dress."

"It's a shame you couldn't use your mother's."

Anna shrugged, "It wouldn't have fit the décor. Besides, it musted up in attic and I wasn't really to go the lengths I needed to fix it."

"Either way I'm glad I could get you something borrowed."

"What is that again?" Robert frowned, "I forget how it goes."

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue." Mary shook her head, adjusting her son in her grasp. "The something old's John, the new enough thing is Anna, the borrowed thing is the dress and I think we just decided to say since she's got blue eyes that'd be it."

"You never fail to suck all the romance from the situation." Anna snatched at her train and handed it to Mary, who pawned her son off on her bewildered father. "Make yourself useful as my matron of honor."

"Only if we don't use that word." Mary spread the train and lifted it from the floor. "I'm not old enough for that."

"It's a title."

"It's-"

"Mary," Matthew groaned, pointing to the doors, "She's about to get married. Can we focus on that a moment?"

"Yes," Mary kissed Anna's cheek, "To the shotgun wedding and the speedy bride."

They walked through the doors and Anna beamed when John stood up immediately. The grin that broke over his face at the sight of her sent shivers down Anna's spine and she gripped tighter to Matthew's arm. He patted her hand, shooting her a smile, and escorted her to stand next to John.

Anna slipped her hand loose from Matthew and gripped John's outstretched hands. He bent to kiss her cheek and whispered to her, "You've never looked more beautiful."

"You mean that lingerie you bought me wasn't better than this?" Anna teased and laughed when John coughed past the rise of blush in his cheeks.

"Wonderful as that looked on you no, this is much more beautiful." His finger slid around the ring on her finger. "Because today we're going to be one another's for the rest of our lives."

"Yes we are." Anna stepped carefully around her dress to face the judge as she entered.

The plain surroundings only accentuated the beauty of the moment for Anna. Of saying her name and promising to be his forever. Or hearing him say her name while sliding the ring over her finger to join the one she accepted from him just weeks ago. Or kissing him for the first time with him as hers and she as his.

The little gathering cheered for them and broke to their separate cars to drive to the wedding lunch. Another series of groans from Mary followed when they arrived, as well as a short tirade about how they could do much better than the tiny restaurant that had Matthew finally ordering his wife to silence. But when they entered the little restaurant- closed for a family event- Anna knew they chose the right venue.

Simple lighting, tastefully arranged decorations, and a cake large enough for the group with some spare for Anna and John to enjoy at home. Mrs. Patmore bustled about them, sparing no expense to make sure they were well taken care of, and cooed over the couple until Daisy called for help from the back. But when each member of the group threatened to loose their belts Anna and John rose from the table.

"This has been better than I could've imagined." John turned to them, "Thank you for such a lovely day."

"It's been our pleasure John." Cora shook his hand, kissing Anna on the cheek. "And we wish you both the utmost happiness."

"Thank you." Anna interlaced her fingers with John's. "I'm sure there's no worries about that."

"Enjoy your honeymoon and I hope neither of you think too hard about anything other than one another." Robert exchanged shakes and kisses of his own, "I know when I had mine-"

"Okay," Mary stood, pushing her father back to his seat. "We'll leave that where it is and not risk the end of that story or my ears'll bleed."

"But I-"

"How much did you drink Robert?" Cora put a hand to his head, "You don't look well."

"I only had a small brandy." Robert mimed with his fingers and, after an exchange of glances, Matthew helped Cora haul him to his feet. "It was small."

"That's not small." Cora chided and pushed Robert toward the door. "We're taking you home to sleep that off."

"Huh," Anna raised an eyebrow at Mary, "Reminds me of your wedding."

"Don't be a sore winner." Mary warned before hugging Anna, "Despite what you may think, I'm overjoyed for you and I hope you enjoy the gift I left you."

"You didn't leave me a gift."

"Oh," Mary winked at John, "I may've snuck into your house last night when you were over at mine."

"What?" Anna turned to John but he pulled his lips in. "What did you do?"

"As he was told." Mary kissed John's cheek, "Treat her well or I'll end you."

"Heard and understood Lieutenant."

Mary leveled her finger at him, "I can do it you know. No distance is too far for me to find you and I know a few places where no one would find you."

"I'll treat her right Mary."

"Good." She sighed, motioning to the sleeping baby in the carrier and the left over. "And I'll treat for this so you two go off and enjoy your honeymoon yeah?"

"Yeah," Anna looked up at John, "I think that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"And that's my cue to get you to your car before I have to call the cops on you for public indecency." Mary pushed them toward the door, "Please don't contact me for at least twenty-four hours. Forty-eight is preferable but I'm flexible."

Anna and John went to his car, he holding the door for her and helping her manage the train of the dress. Once he was inside Anna put a hand over his and leaned over to kiss him. He returned it with enough fervor to get both of their blood pumping but without making a scene in the car.

They pulled apart and John stroked his thumb over her cheekbone. "I don't think I've ever been as happy as I am now."

"Nor me." Anna giggled with him, planting another kiss on him. "I'm ready to start this adventure with you"

"Are you?" John raised a dramatic eyebrow, "Are you sure?"

"I know that I am now who I was always meant to be, Mr. Bates, and that's not going to change."

"I just hope you don't live to regret it."

"I could never regret it."

"Despite what you could call me for what I've done and how I've-"

"Mr. Bates," Anna chided, squeezing his hand. "After all we've been through can't we just have this? Have this moment and this beautiful day without letting the world in to pull us apart?"

"I can give you that." John leaned forward again, his nose brushing hers and he murmured toward her lips, "And every day I can manage after that."

"I'll take it." Anna grinned, kissing him with a tease of her tongue over his lip. "Now, get us home before I strip you and take you in the back of this car."

"Yes ma'am."

They wove through the trees and over the rolling hills to Anna's hidden drive. John guided the car safely to stop outside her garage before kissing her again. Anna's hands went to his face, taking the breath from him lungs. He broke the kiss and got out of the car to help her out of her door.

"Welcome home Mrs. Bates."

"Thank you Mr. Bates."

Anna smiled and then dissolved into giggles as John swept her off her feet. She held on at his neck as John walked them to the front door and jiggled her slightly to unlock and open it. He weaved between the island in the kitchen, dropping their shoes while still keeping a tight grip on Anna, and then risked the stairs toward their room.

For one moment Anna feared they might tumble back down the stairs but they managed it and John set her back on her feet just outside their closed door. She raised an eyebrow but he only smiled and turned the knob. Anna's hands flew to her mouth when she saw the petals strewn over the floor and the candles wafting sweet scents over the room.

"For you, Mrs. Bates."

"John," Anna turned to him and he took her hands. "It's beautiful."

"Just enough for my gorgeous wife on her wedding day." He bent and picked her up again, "Over the threshold."

"You already did."

"I'm overly traditional." John guided them to the bed and set Anna gently on the edge.

"Does that mean," Anna pulled him closer by his tie, unknotting it with nimble fingers to let it drop to the side before popping the buttons loose. "We're only allowed missionary style in the dark with silence?"

"I'm not that traditional." John set his hands on either side of her, tipping Anna to her back on the comforter. "But if you want to try and stay silent I'll welcome your attempt."

"I can stay silent."

"Says the woman who screamed my name so loudly the dogs from the neighboring farm were howling at midnight." John glided his lips down her cheek to kiss over her neck while Anna pushing his shirt and jacket off his shoulders. "I think we've different ideas of silent."

"I wouldn't act so cocky, Mr. I-almost-broke-the-headboard when I sucked you off." Anna raked her fingers over his chest and John groaned.

"That wasn't fair, you caught me half-asleep."

"That was the point." Anna popped the latch on his belt and tugged John to stand between her legs. "Now help me out of this dress so we can upset the rose petals you put all over this bed."

"They're technically not roses but-"

"Shhh," Anna put a finger over John's mouth, silencing him. "I believe the agreement we both gave today was to love, honor, and obey. Now it's time for the obedience and honoring part."

"Yes ma'am." John's mouth took over hers and within a few minutes they both writhed against one another.

Anna's leg hooked over his hip while his fingers teased and stroked over her folds to send her keening moans to echo off the A-frame of the ceiling. Her fingers scrabbled for purchase on his chest or shoulders or in his hair as they tangled tongues. When neither could take it any longer John sunk as deeply as he could and Anna practically cooed with the motion.

There was no time for slow and steady, though they both gave their honest efforts toward it, and soon Anna was crying out with John. They slumped together on the bed and Anna made a face as she started pulling petals off her sweaty body. John laughed, helping her find a few before running his fingers over her.

"Are you helping or hindering here?" Anna mocked and dropped the petals on the bedside table before rolling to find the ones stuck to him and ferret them out of the covers.

"I thought helping you orgasm again was helping."

"It's a lovely thought, like these petals," Anna held them up, "But next time you want to ravish me on this bed we'll ditch the petals."

"What if I want to ravish you other places?" John's fingers moved lower and Anna's arms trembled as they held her up over him on the bed. "Is there room for negotiation there?"

"I think I'd like to spend the rest of my life negotiating with you." Anna scrunched her eyes closed, trying to form coherent thoughts as John continued to move his fingers inside her and added the motion of his lips to her skin to drive her mad. "But only if you continue what you're doing."

"I don't plan on stopping." John shifted to kiss her navel, "Not for the rest of my life."

"For the next two minutes is enough for now."

"Yes ma'am."

Anna almost answered but found herself too occupied with moaning at the new location of his mouth and crunching the comforter in her grip as she tried not to shriek with pleasure.


	19. The World Turned Upside Down

Anna rubbed at her eyes and pulled the light next to her desk to switch it off. Someone knocked on the doorframe and she looked up with a smile. "I thought you had a meeting in New York today."

"I did but it finished." John shrugged and walked toward her desk. "I'm actually back because I've got a conference call with Hong Kong in an hour and I needed some time to decompress before I came at them with our numbers."

"Are they looking strong?"

"They're alright but not as good as our numbers in France and Germany." John sighed, "There's something about China that we're just not getting when it comes to chocolate."

"Probably that they like it with one-third the sugar we do in America." Anna gathered her things, "I think I'm heading home for the night then."

"Don't want to help me find a way to spend an hour?" John winked at her and Anna came close enough to kiss him but pulled away before he could take it further.

"I'll not be the one to distract you when you've got so much to do and the better you do on the phone then the sooner you can come home and celebrate with me." She trailed her fingers up his shirt to land on his chin. "So you'll just have to imagine what waits for you when you finally do get home."

"Then I can make sure that call ends as soon as possible."

"Good." Anna kissed his cheek, "Drive safely yeah?"

"Always. I have to get home to you."

Anna arranged the strap on her shoulder and smiled at him, "And I have you coming home to me. What wife needs more than that?"

She left the building, shivering a bit in the cold before she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning in a hurry she gasped out a smile when John stood there. "I thought you had a meeting."

"I do but then I remembered," He opened the back door of her car, and nodded his head toward the inside. "It's Valentine's Day and I need to celebrate with my wife."

"How'd you intend to do that?"

"You have a back seat." John climbed into the car and Anna followed him.

Her bag dropped over onto her passenger seat and she straddled John's lap in the back of the car. "How long do we have?"

"Half an hour, give or take." John checked his watch, "Thirty five minutes will give me enough time to finish the prep work. Forty five gives me a breather."

"Then we've got forty minutes." Anna loosened John's tie and undid his buttons. "I think we could work with that."

"I think we could too." John pulled the door shut before moving up just enough to kiss Anna.

Her mouth slanted over his, one of her hands coming to the back of his head to hold him in place, and the other finished unbuttoning his shirt. John's hands slipped under Anna's blouse and massaged the skin at her back before one of his hands slipped under the belt of her trousers to run his fingers over her ass. She groaned into his mouth and ran her fingernails over his skin.

John's hips bucked under her and Anna ground down. They broke the kiss and John's lips worked themselves down her neck as Anna struggled to get his belt open as his fingers dug into her ass. His other hand wrapped to the front, working her blouse open enough to knead over her breasts.

Anna ruffled John's hair as he moved his kisses lower to play at her breasts. Her hands dug desperately at his trousers and boxers to bring him out as John's hand pushed her trousers lower. She shifted to shuck them down her legs enough to leave them and her knickers in a pool at their feet. John shifted enough to let her bring his trousers and boxers lower.

"Is this going to be every Valentine's Day?" She asked, spreading onto her knees to sink her weight into the leather back seat of her car as she straddled over him. "Because I could get used to this."

"You did call me the patron saint of Valentine's Day." John eased his hands up her thighs, "I realized I couldn't be that if I left my own wife unsatisfied."

"How lovely of you." Anna sank down and buried her head near John's shoulder to let out her moan.

John grunted and moved his hands to hold tighter at Anna's ass to guide her motions while he drove into her. Her fingers crumpled up in his suit jacket as her thighs tightened at his hips. One of her hands worked between them as Anna tried to move herself closer to John. Between the movement of John against her and her fingers between them she tumbled over the edge.

He followed soon after, head tumbling back onto the seat. Anna slumped against him and tried to slip back to grab her trousers from the floor. She gave a final kiss to John before helping him move his trousers back in place.

"You've got ten minutes to seal the deal with Hong Kong and then we go for round two." She grinned at him, "If you get it."

"Best Valentine's Day ever." John snuck his hand to the back of her neck, holding her close to kiss one last time before sliding out of the back of Anna's car. "And I won't be late."

"I do hope not." Anna arranged herself and got into the driver's seat.

She drove home, parking her car outside her house. With the door unlocked Anna dropped her bag on the table and checked all of the other doors before starting up the fire. A peek at the wine collection had her picking a good choice to sit on the counter with the wine glasses.

Someone knocked on the door and Anna frowned. She checked her mobile for the time before leaving it on the table. Walking to the door she opened it and tried to stop herself taking a visible step backward.

"Hello Anna." Green waved at her, holding a bouquet toward her. "Happy Valentine's Day."

"Alex what…" Anna composed herself, "What are you doing here?"

"I thought, since it's Valentine's Day-"

"No," Anna shook her head, "How did you know where I live?"

"I looked it up in the system." Green tried to manage a little laugh, "I thought I needed to make a bigger gesture to show you how much I care about you."

"You kicked me out of your car outside a restaurant and then tried to force me to take you back." Anna went to shut the door but his hand hit the wood. "Excuse you?"

"I'm making a big stride here Anna." He tried to thrust the flowers forward but Anna knocked them away. "Are you really this ungrateful?"

"Are you really this intrusive?" Anna knocked the door back but Green maneuvered himself inside the house. "Get out before I call the cops."

"I came here, went through the trouble of finding your address, brought you flowers, and you just throw it all in my face?" He shook his head, "You don't do that to me."

"You're trespassing and I think you should leave before I break something." Anna pressed against the door again but Green shoved with his shoulder and knocked her back against the stairs.

She stumbled to her feet as Green threw the bouquet to the corner. "I can't believe you'd refuse me for what? For that old man in a nice suit?"

"What I see in him is none of your concern." Anna stood, moving toward the table where she left her mobile. "Now get out."

"No because I deserve to know why you left me."

Green stalked closer to her and Anna fumbled to grab her phone. He grabbed at her hand and brought his elbow around to knock into the side of her head. Anna fumbled sideways, trying to catch herself before she fell into her chairs, the mobile falling from her hand.

"I already told you." Anna caught herself on the back of her fireplace. "I don't love you and you didn't like it the first time."

"Because it's shit." Green held his hands close to his head, fingers curled toward his temples. "You don't leave someone like me."

"I already did." Anna held up her left hand, making sure Green saw the ring. "I'm already married and if you take one step closer I'll end you."

Green snorted, "You're just making that up."

"No, it's the truth and it's the reality that I don't love you, I never did, and I married the man I do love." Anna found the fire poker and held it out at him. "I do know how to use this."

"I won't let you make a fool of me." Green charged and Anna swung the fire poker.

It caught him across the face and he fell back into her table. His hand shook, going up to his face, and he touched the blood from the gash there. The scowl on his face had Anna clutching the poker tighter.

"Leave before I do something worse."

Green snarled and ran toward her. It was all Anna could do to try and keep him away. She got another two whacks in before Green grabbed the fire poker and backhanded her toward the sofa. Catching herself on the cushions Anna tried to get herself to stand when he tackled her to the floor.

Once her head hit the floor it all hazed. His hands tearing at her and her clothes as she tried to fight him off from behind her only left her with a wrenched shoulder. The pain shot through her whole body and sharpened the one part of her she needed.

In a moment of distraction, between her own sobs and shrieks her hand closed over the loose brick on the fireplace. She swung back and knocked the brick against his skull. Green tumbled back, holding his head, and Anna crawled over the floor to her mobile.

Her fingers fumbled over the buttons and she could barely sob to the operator. She slid over the floor, keeping an eye on Green as he twitched and fell back to the floor, and held her legs closer to her body. The door burst open and Anna jumped but quickly dissolved into tears on John's shoulder.

"Anna it's alright." He held her close, cradling her as lights flashed through the window. "It's going to be alright."

"No it's not John." Anna tugged tighter at his arm. "It's not alright."

"I'm here Anna. It'll be alright."


	20. Win Some, Lose Some

Anna started when someone put a blanket over her and turned to see John holding up his hands. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's-" She swallowed, "It's fine."

"Mrs. Bates?" Anna turned back to the officer at the table. "Could you tell us what happened?"

"Hasn't she already told you?" John bit in but Anna put a hand out to him.

"It's fine, John. They need to know."

"They could do to not sound like they're accusing you." John sat on Anna's other side and put a hand toward her. She looked at it a moment before covering it with her own. He intertwined their fingers but made no move closer.

"We're not accusing Mrs. Bates of anything, Mr. Bates." The officer held up a hand, "We're just trying to gather facts about what happened here."

"I'd just got home." Anna blinked, wrapping herself in the blanket and lifting a shaking hand toward the back door. "I park in the back and I use the door by the kitchen."

"Do you know about what time that was?"

"Um," She cleared her throat, "I left work about six thirty or so. It's a twenty minute drive from town and there's no traffic so no later than seven."

"And he was waiting here for you?"

"No, not that I know." Anna slightly turned toward the front door but caught sight of the people taking pictures of the scene near the fireplace and immediately faced the table again. "I set down my handbag and phone. I got out the wine and the glasses… because it's Valentine's Day, and then I heard a knock on the front door."

"Was that odd to you? Way out here?"

"We've had people knock before. I'm bordered on all sides by a farm and sometimes their hands are closer here than the main house and they'll knock for the toilet or water."

"This late at night?"

"No, not usually." Anna swallowed again, "But I answered the door and he was… standing here with a bouquet for me."

The officer paused, "Did he know your address before?"

Anna shook her head, "He got it from my employment records at the University."

"Which one?"

"Ohio University. I worked with him there for a year in the Maths Department."

"When was this?"

"January to December."

"And, in all that time, did he ever give the indication that he was aware of your personal life?"

Anna bit the inside of her cheek, "We dated for awhile."

"So you'd brought him here before?"

"No, that's actually one of the issues he had when we dated." Anna shifted in her chair. "I didn't ever feel comfortable enough inviting him to my home."

"And did you ever go to his home?"

"Once or twice."

"Did you have sex with him?"

"No." Anna shook her head, "I never wanted to."

"But he did?"

"Yes."

"So then, when he showed up here tonight, what was his mood?"

"To start?" Anna sighed, "He seemed confident that showing up at my door was going to get him invited in. He kept saying that he'd gone to all this effort and that I should appreciate it."

"But you didn't invite him in?"

"No, he shoved the door and got in after I fell back." Anna tapped the table, "I tried to retreat to here, to grab my phone, and told him to get out because he was trespassing. When he shoved me away I fell toward the fireplace and grabbed the fire poker."

"What else did he say that had you grabbing fire poker?"

"That I still didn't love him and I was already married."

"And he attacked you after that?"

"I warned him away but he came at me anyway. I swung the poker and it caught him on the cheek."

"Yes, I saw the injury when they took him away." The officer looked over his notes. "And after that you said he came at you again?"

"Yes. I took in two hits before he grabbed the poker from my hand and threw me toward the sofa. I tried to catch myself on the cushions but slipped and knocked my head on the floor." Anna risked a hand toward the swelling area and John immediately applied an ice pack. She cringed away from it a moment but relaxed when John's fingers rubbed over hers. "It got hazy but I could feel him tearing at me and then pain. I-"

Her other hand held the blanket tighter around herself as she looked at the officer and then John, "Was I…?"

"We'd need a doctor's confirmation but based on the state in which you were found, Mrs. Bates, and how we found him, we're under the impression that Mr. Green did succeed in raping you." The officer put a hand on the table between them, "But we need a doctor to confirm."

"I…" Anna slumped back on the chair, her hand covering her mouth to let the blanket and ice pack fall.

John caught both and helped restore Anna as best he could before turning to the officer. "If we could finish this another time?"

"Just one last question," The officer pointed to Anna, "What did you use to hit him?"

"There's a loose brick in our fireplace."

"It's real brick?"

"Yes."

"Wow." The officer ducked his head under John's glare, "I'm sorry. Those are all the questions we've got for you. If you're up for it we'd like to send you with a police escort to the hospital to get an exam. If you're up for it now."

"I need-" Anna turned to John and he went to his knees beside her. "I need clothes and my bag and-"

"I'll get it all. Just stay here and I'll be right back, I promise."

"John," She caught his arm and he stopped, "I can't stay here tonight. I need to go somewhere else."

"We'll get an hotel, don't worry." He hurried away and Anna pulled the blanket back around her while trying to apply the ice pack to the aching pulse in her brain.

John returned a moment later, slipping a strap over his shoulder, and then bending toward Anna. He paused, making sure she looked him in the eye. "Would you like me to carry you?"

"Yes please." Anna almost sobbed and as John picked her up she buried her head in his shoulder to cry.

Her tears took them all the way to the hospital and, ignoring all the nurses and doctors and the officers with them, Anna continued crying. John set her on the bed and held her hand as the nurses talked her through the process. When they wanted her to come alone she clung to John.

He helped her take off the torn and damaged clothing and soothed her while the nurses and officers took pictures of what felt like a bruised and broken body. Stepping away only for a moment, John kept his hand on hers the whole time. And when she could shower and change, John joined her. He held her close, scrubbing and washing away every bit of Green, and even toweled her dry while dripping over the floor himself.

As John helped Anna back into the borrowed bed in the room a doctor and one of the nurses entered with the female officer who took the pictures of her body. Anna clutched at John's hand and he sat on the edge of her bed, his hand running over hers to soothe her. The doctor spoke first, his mustache twitching a bit.

"I can say that you were, in fact, raped this evening." Anna let out a sob and John held her close to his shoulder a moment until she calmed. "There's significant bruising and possible damage to the cervix."

"Is that all, Doctor?"

"No," He bit at his lip, "There's also evidence of other sexual activity from earlier in the evening based on the swabs we took."

"I can account for that." John raised a hand, "It was Valentine's Day."

"Why didn't you mention that in the earlier statement?" The officer pressed and Anna sniffed as John answered.

"It wasn't relevant to mention that I had sex with my wife on Valentine's Day when she was attacked and raped in our home."

"There's no need to get defensive, Mr. Bates, we're just establishing a timeline of events."

"It was when Anna got off work."

"So before the attack?"

"I wouldn't have bloody done it after the attack."

"Calm down."

"No," John pushed off the bed, Anna pulling at him to stop his advanced on the officer. "I won't calm down when my wife's being accused of inviting this piece of shit to do what he did. Or when the first response after she's found crying and bleeding in my home isn't to arrest the bastard responsible but to immediately put her through the third degree as if it was all her idea."

"We're just getting all the facts."

"Really?" John snorted, "What other facts do you need? He barged into the house, attacked my wife, raped her, and she fought back. End of discussion."

"There's been developments in the case that need to be addressed."

"Already?" He huffed, "Because so far you've been pretty bloody useless about handling any of it so I can't see how you're 'sod all' attitude got you anywhere since we came to you for help."

"Mr. Green's injuries led to bleeding in his brain," The Doctor cut in, "He died ten minutes ago of a brain aneurysm."

"Then good riddance to him."

"But this isn't the first time Ms. Smith has claimed an attack in her own home." The officer pointed to Anna and John immediately retreated to her side.

"What are you talking about?"

"There's been a statement, filed by a Vera Bates, that claims Ms. Smith has made several mentions to her about violence in the home of a domestic nature. As well as information provided about an incident when she was sixteen."

Anna paled, "That's not relevant."

"It's been made relevant." The officer nodded at both of them, "It'd be best, for now, if you didn't leave town until we sort this out."

"What the bloody hell does that mean?" Anna's grip on John's arm was the only thing that kept him back.

"It means that we might have reason to believe that Mr. Green was lured out to the property for the express purpose of injuring him and Ms. Smith's injuries were caused by either you, Mr. Bates, or as some part of a sexual role play that went too far."

"And Vera told you all of this?"

"What she did or didn't say is police information in an ongoing investigation."

"But you'll believe it anyway?" John shook his head, "You can't believe a word she says. She's a liar and a conniving bitch."

"We take every statement seriously, Mr. Bates." The officer shrugged, "Just stay in town and where we can easily contact you."

"Right." John turned to the Doctor as the officer left, "Does she need to stay the night?"

"No, from what I can tell, all I need to prescribe Mrs. Bates are some painkillers and a short day-after regimen to make sure there aren't any unintended consequences."

"Because any of these consequences were intended." Anna muttered but took the pills the Doctor handed over. "Thank you Doctor."

"I wish I could say it was my pleasure but it's not." He sighed, looking after where the officer left. "Sorry about that."

"It's not your fault." John put Anna's arm over his shoulder and lifted her from the bed. "Should we schedule another appointment?"

"In about a week, just to make sure you're healing alright."

"Thank you." John took Anna back out to the car, putting the bag with their things in the back seat, and drove to a hotel.

They checked in, finding the slightly musty room, and settling in on one of the beds. Anna curled up in the middle of it while John checked all the windows and door before grabbing one of the pillows. She sat up, watching him make a bed on the sofa in the room.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought-" He stopped, "Do you not want me to?"

"If you want." She tried to force a swallow, "I'd understand."

"Understand what, Anna?" John came to the edge of the bed and took her hand as Anna turned away, unable to look at him. "Please tell me Anna. It's John."

"I'd understand if you didn't want to sleep with me because of what…" Anna took a deep breath, "Because of what happened."

"I just thought you'd want space."

"I know I'm… I know it's shaming for you and I'm shamed in all this."

"You're not shamed." John cupped her face in his hands, "The only shame I see is his and he's dead so I hope he rots in hell."

"But I'm spoiled for you."

"You're not spoiled." John rested their foreheads together. "You're made holier, and higher, to me because of the suffering you've been put through and I couldn't love you more than I do at this moment."

Anna finally met his eyes, blurred because of her tears. "Truly?"

"Truly." John snuck a glance over his shoulder at the sofa, "And I'm glad I'm not spending a night on that sofa. I don't think my back could take it."

Anna managed a laugh, "I don't want you so far away."

"Then I won't be. I'll be right by your side." John grabbed the pillow back and drew down the covers so Anna could snuggle under them and wrap herself close to him.

"Not how I wanted to spend my Valentine's Day." She mumbled into the fabric of his shirt and he snorted.

"Though the part where you had your way with me in the car was pretty nice."

"We'll remember that part then." Anna clutched at his shirt, trying to dig herself a safe place in his skin and leave hers behind. "Once we can forget everything else that happened today we'll remember that part."

"The moment we can we'll forget it all. Like your students used to after tests."

"Just like that."

* * *

Anna fidgeted in the chair, constantly turning her head toward the room where John's voice resonated through the door. She looked at the officer behind the desk before her, writing reports with a consistent clack on the keys, and then sighed. Another moment and she checked her mobile but with no notifications or messages she just put it back on the desk.

The door opened and Anna stood, wringing her hands as John approached her. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. But it was not the hug of a condemned man or a worried soul but a vindicated individual. Anna clung back, giving her relief as a sigh into the skin of his neck.

She pulled back, "And?"

"They've found evidence that linked Vera to Green."

"What?" Anna turned to the officer, staring more at the ground then them. "How?"

"She'd apparently been following us and noticed our interactions with Green last year."

"That's in violation of the restraining order."

John shrugged, "She's already left the country so she can't even corroborate the statements she made and once the doctors couldn't find other signs of bruising or hospital records consistent with either domestic violence or BDSM they had to drop that lead." He glared at the female officer, who immediately returned to her typing. "And they actually found the report about your other incident."

"My stepfather?" John nodded. "And?"

"They realized that both actions were in self-defense and therefore won't be ruling this as a wrongful death."

"So it's over then?" Anna turned to the officer, "We can forget this whole thing ever happened?"

"As far as we're concerned you acted in self-defense and Mr. Green's aneurysm was the result of bad timing and poor genetics." The officer extended her his hand, "I do apologize for the trauma we put you through Mrs. Bates. You and your husband."

"We are too." Anna shook his hand, "But there's nothing that can't be said about your thoroughness in this case."

"You two have a good day now."

John and Anna walked out to the car, buckling themselves in but not driving away immediately. They turned to one another and started speaking at the same time. John stopped himself and pointed at her, "You first."

"I think we should move." John's eyes widened and Anna hurried to explain. "I haven't had a good night sleep in that house since… it happened and the way everyone at work and in town look at me I can't-"

"Anna," John covered her hands with his, stopping her. "I understand. I was going to suggest the exact same thing."

"Really?"

"Yes." John leaned forward to kiss her, "Let's start over somewhere else."

"Yes. Somewhere new."

John smiled, "I've got an idea about that."

Anna narrowed her eyes, "Where?"

"Somewhere magical."


	21. Dream On

She sniffed, resting on the edge of the tub as John kneeled in front of her. He reached forward, taking her hand, and smiling at her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew the suffering it would bring you." Anna wiped at her eyes, "I thought it was a one time thing but this is the third time and I-"

"And you thought it would resolve itself?"

Anna nodded, "The first time I thought it was the stress of the move and the job change but then I realized it wasn't that." The tears rolled down her cheek again. "We can't have children John. I'm not able."

"Don't say that." John put his hand on the back of her neck to pull her head to his shoulder so he could rub her back. "Doctor Clarkson said, back in Downton, that there was cervical damage. We could see another doctor or a specialist and we can figure a way out of this."

"What if…" Anna pushed herself off his shoulder, chest still heving with her sobs, "What if I can't and it's hopeless and-"

"Stop that." John gave her a sad smile, "We won't do ourselves any good worrying over it all now. We'll make an appointment, we'll see a doctor, and then we'll know."

"But if-"

"If you can't then…" John took a breath, "Then we'll adopt some."

"But you're tribal. You want one of your own and you won't be satisfied without one."

"Anna," John put both of his hands to her face, looking up at her from his position on the tile floor of their bathroom. "If you can't have children then we'll have to deal with that."

"How?"

"By mourning it together." John took a deep breath, "If that horrible man took that from us then we'll mourn it. We'll cry about it, we'll weep together, and we'll move on together."

"And then?"

John shrugged, "I'll always have a part of myself that wishes we could have one of our own. One half of you and one half of me but we can make a home together with whatever children we can welcome into it." He kissed her forehead, "Will you work with me?"

Anna only nodded and John hugged her to him, "Then let's get you to bed and we'll solve this problem in the morning."

She smiled at him, "How can you be this good?"

"Because you let me love you." John withdrew, "And I can never thank you enough for that. But I promised to spend my life trying and I will. Every day."

"Thank you John."

She wrapped her arms around him and John carried her to bed. They lay there, intertwined with one another, and Anna relaxed against him. Breathing deeply to the resounding, and comforting, beat of his heart she fell asleep.

* * *

They held hands as the doctor sat down behind his desk before them. He frowned at the form before him before eyeing them both. "Bit of a ways to come for a check up."

"London's not that far, Doctor Ryder." John ran his thumb over Anna's knuckles and she squeezed his hand in return.

"I guess it's all relative but I'll be honest, you're the first patients I've ever had from Germany."

"We're ex-pats there."

"Ah," Doctor Ryder nodded before tapping at the forms, "Explains the medical records from America. Your Doctor Clarkson was surprisingly thorough in his examination and recommendation."

"What did he say?" Anna leaned forward slightly.

"He mentioned there was significant damage to your cervix from an… incident, about a year ago." Doctor Ryder flipped through the papers a moment. "Recommended I take a close look at your cervix and he was right to suggest it."

"What did you find?"

"Cervical incompetence." Doctor Ryder waved his hand at the pale faces before him. "It's not unusual or difficult to solve."

"It happens often?"

"More than people believe but not as often as you think. Sometimes it's genetic and I treat it in siblings or even cousins. Sometimes it's the result of sexual assault, as in your case, and other times a difficult pregnancy and subsequent delivery can cause the cervix to weaken."

"What exactly happens, in that case?" John finally spoke again, still holding Anna's hand but now she could not tell who was supporting whom.

"It means that the womb isn't strong enough to hold the baby past a certain weight. It collapses under the pressure and releases the baby too soon, causing the miscarriage or, in this case, the abortion."

"My body's been aborting the babies?"

"It's a self-defense mechanism." Doctor Ryder put a hand toward her. "Your body will protect itself and since it can't support the baby it has to take the measures necessary to ensure your survival."

"But you can fix it. I'm not going to be like this forever?"

"Of course you're not." Doctor Ryder smiled at her. "When you're three months or so you come right back here and I'll put in a stitch. About your eighth month I'll come to you and remove it so your body can deliver the baby naturally."

"Could I get something permanent to fix it?"

"There are procedures and, if you like, I can look into those for you." He winced, "I would suggest, for the first pregnancy, we go this route. Given the number of miscarriages I'm loathe to force your body into a procedure that might not work."

"But the stitch will?"

"I've had great success with it and can recommend it at ninety-five percent efficiency."

"Only ninety-five percent?" John asked and Doctor Ryder shrugged.

"Nothing is foolproof and I won't do either of you the disservice of saying otherwise. You deserve the truth and that is I have great faith in this procedure and I have every confidence that Mrs. Bates's body just needs to gather a bit of strength to surmount this obstacle."

"Could I-" Anna paused, "Could I have multiple children?"

"Depends on how your body reacts to this pregnancy." Doctor Ryder stood, "Let's climb this Everest and then we'll face the next summit."

"Thank you Doctor Ryder." Anna gave her hand first, shaking his and then stepping to the side to allow John to shake as well. "You've given us a lot of hope."

"In nine months or so I do hope to give you a baby." Doctor Ryder stopped, "Sorry, that cam out wrong."

Anna laughed, "I understand what you mean and I've grateful."

"I'll see you both in a few months then."

Anna and John left the office, both taking a huge sigh of relief when they reached the pavement. They turned to one another and Anna threw her arms around John's neck. He hugged her close and even lifted her off the ground a moment before setting her back down.

"We could have a baby, John." She beamed at him, sucking air through her teeth. "We can start a family."

"Then may I suggest," He took her hand, a familiar glint in his eye, "We start right away?"

"I'd like that very much."

They caught the next taxi back to their hotel and giggled through the lobby like two children. A lift dinged to their location and they hurried inside, John pressing the button to close the doors as fast as possible. Once they shut Anna threw herself at him, holding tightly to his shirt to keep herself upright as she lips moved over his.

John responded with equal fervor, his fingers clutching at the back of her shirt to mold into the skin of her back, and groaned into her mouth when she dragged his lower lip between her teeth. The doors opened and they stumbled out, laughing at the shock on the faces of the older couple standing there. With muttered apologies they did not mean, and trying to keep their grins to themselves as the old man smirked while his wife looked absolutely scandalized, they ran to their room.

They fumbled the card key, sliding it in too fast or not fast enough. When the lock finally clicked open they scrambled into the hallway of their room and closed the door. Their swift kisses and chuckles had them kicking off shoes and managing to tear away jackets and belts.

But when they reached the base of the bed they both stopped. Anna caressed her hands over John's face and stood on tiptoe while pulling his face to hers. The slower pace gave them time to enjoy the sensation of their lips meeting again while their bodies fluctuated against one another.

Anna bent slightly when the bed hit the back of her knees and succumbed to the lean John pressed on her. He caught them before they could fall and spread Anna gently on the bed. His kisses moved over her face, touching every inch of skin, and moved to her neck to lay a trail there like he wanted breadcrumbs to guide him home.

Her hands lifted the edge of his shirt, sliding her hands beneath the hanging tails, and massaging skin she only felt next to her for so long instead of where she wanted it: all over her. With John leaving her more relaxed by the moment, Anna struggled to lift the shirt over his head. The buttons caught and they both paused a moment to smile before Anna's deft fingers worked each one loose enough to leave it billowing to the ground.

At the sight of his chest Anna could almost taste the rise in herself. She leaned forward, ignoring John's protests, and laid a trail of kisses there to match the one he tried to make over her neck. With fingers teasing and tangling over his skin and in the hair there, John's panting breaths vibrated back into her own body. And when he hissed through his clenched teeth at the feel of her mouth and tongue over his nipples Anna knew she held the upper hand.

But John's hands were not idle. They sculpted up her shirt and caught the fabric about her arms. His fingers traced the edge of her bra and unclasped it in the bag to let it hang from her shoulders. It was enough space to sneak his hands forward and knead at her until the massage had her pulling back to keen in the half-light of their room.

Ceasing the opportunity, John lifted her shirt off her head and snuck away her bra so they both pressed skin to skin from the waist up. Anna reveled in the feel of him again, the coarse brush of her breasts against his chest that sent shivers through her body. And especially the weight of him above her.

John's kisses renewed their intensity and this time they did not stop until he reached her breasts. Then they attacked at her, drawing at her skin and nipples to leave her writhing beneath him, and only stopped when she forced his head up to kiss her again. It slowed their motions, leaving them both dancing between the speed and exhilaration of one moment while basking in the sensual slide of the next.

Anna ran her leg over his, the harsh scrape of the fabrics there disrupting the moment enough for John to shuck off his trousers and boxers before licking his lips at her. She shivered under his gaze and raised her arms above her head as John kissed down her chest to the line of her jeans. He flicked the button loose and opened her zipper before stepping back and tugging her jeans off her legs.

With an arch of her back to lift her hips, Anna felt her legs meet the open air and licked her lips at the sight of John standing at the end of the bed. He caught her eyes and grinned back as he knelt at the edge of the bed. Taking her right foot in hand, John began with a ring of kisses over her ankle before trailing up toward her calf and thigh.

When he reached the line of her knickers there he skipped over them, chasing the edge to find her left hip, and then worked back down that leg. Anna whined and John circled her ankles with his fingers to slide her over the bed so her feet hit the carpet. Managing to lift herself on her elbows Anna watched John lower his mouth to her knickers and run his tongue over the fabric.

She fell back onto the bed, keening at the scrape of his teeth and tongue through the fabric. John glided the knickers down her legs and let them fly to another side of the room before returning to his occupation. With fingers massaging in even strokes over her folds while flicking consistently at her nerves, his tongue delved as deeply as it could to suck and sip at her until Anna thrashed about with unintelligible words escaping her mouth.

John switched the focus of his fingers and mouth, trading locations to roll his tongue over her nerves while his hand worked fingers inside her. The clench of her muscles and the stranglehold they tried to gain as he skimmed the spot inside her reflected in Anna's clutching of the duvet under her. Everything burned and squeezed until it was all she could do to even think about breathing.

And then she did not think at all.

Coming with a cry of John's name her body arched on the bed to almost pop at her shoulders. But she settled back on the bed, heaving air into her strangled lungs, and sighed as John moved around the bed to help slide her toward the pillows. Her head rested heavily on them, leaving her to lazily watch John climb onto the bed beside her.

Anna reached out, her hand weak but determined, and gripped him tightly. John gasped, grunting when she maneuvered her hand over him to squeeze and hold the pulsing heat. He almost tumbled over her, just catching himself with a hand, and Anna forced her legs to respond to her… even though they felt like gelatin. With John settled there and his scorching erection in her hand, Anna lifted her hips toward him.

It only took a thrust to put John where they both wanted him to be. They sighed together, losing the speed of a moment ago to relish the nirvana of the moment. When their eyes met John pulled back, until his tip barely settled at her opening, and then rammed back inside her.

The pace fluctuated. Her nails digging into his back and side when John drove at a crushing pace and her fingers delving toward his ass when he slowed. Neither could decide a rhythm they liked better so they chased them both. When Anna shifted her hips slightly then John's pubic bone pressed and ground at her nerves, leaving her moaning at the sensation. And when her hand fingered his sack, almost by accident, John gritted his teeth and drove into her one last time to finish.

Final stuttering motions from his body tipped Anna over the precipice again. She gasped into his neck as John's weight collapsed partially on top of her. Her legs tightened around his waist when he tried to move and her arms held him close.

"Not yet." She murmured in the dark, "I don't want you to go yet."

They lay there until John finally had the strength to rise. He held her hand in his, moving to lay beside her, and kissed over it as she turned to look at him. They smiled and he ran the back of his hand over her cheek.

"We've hope now, Anna."

"Yes we do." She trailed her fingers over his face, leaning forward to kiss him. "We can dream again."

"Every morning I wake up next to you is the best dream." John kissed over her hand before placing it at his heart. "You're my dream."

"I'm glad." Anna shook her head into the pillow. "Because the moment you sideswiped my car you were my dream."

"And now we'll build more dreams together."

"Speaking of that." Anna lifted herself onto her arm, "I'd like to discuss an idea with you about what to do with our house."

"What about our house?" John frowned, "I thought we only wanted to add a small porch on our bedroom."

"For the second floor, yes, but we've got a bloody castle John and I want to put it to good use."

John smiled, "And what do you want to do with it Mrs. Bates?"

"I think we should look into the idea of adopting some children to help us fill all those rooms."

"I thought we were going to fill those rooms with Baby Bateses?"

"Those too." Anna kissed his forehead, stroking his hair back. "But I think we could do some good and we need to."

"Don't we already with the company?"

"We can do more John." Anna sat up as John joined her, "I've been feeling it, since you suggested adoption, and I think we should."

"It's a lot of work Anna."

She grinned, "And when have I not been up for that?"

"Never," John conceded, "But I want you to be sure."

"I am." Anna took his hand, "Let's build a family John."

"Well," His fingers caressed up her side and Anna flinched to avoid the tickle, "I think I know a way we can do that this minute."

"Oh do you?" She teased and then squealed when John lay back and pulled he rover him. "Ready again already?"

"For you? Always." He held her face, "I love you, Anna May Smith Bates."

"And I love you, John Bates." Anna kissed him, pulling back to leave him whining, "I believe there's something else I need to attend to… if you want me there that is."

"Please."

"My pleasure," Anna grinned to slide down him.

"I think it'll be my pleasure."

"I'm sure we can share it." Anna paused, waiting for John to meet her eyes. "Like everything else."

"Like everything else."

With that, Anna set to work and did not stop until they were both crying out loud enough to disturb the other rooms again.


	22. Epilogue: Who I Was Born to Be

There are places that disappear.

Not like an illusion or a magic trick. They simply fade into the background. They leave your memory and sometimes the only way you remember they ever even existed is by the evidence that they are no longer there. Like a missing piece in a photograph or a puzzle with a gap. You know something is missing but you cannot quite fill in the gap.

We closed up the house and sold it. It went to a nice family that wanted to start a new life. A life they can have since John saved the town.

His company grew, just like he wanted it to, and Downton revitalized. Instead of everyone wanting to move out people were moving in. Now they had somewhere to go and a place to dream.

The buildings do not rot anymore. The children play in playgrounds or read at new libraries. Teenagers made nuisances of themselves at the skate parks or the rec centers but at least they were there instead of smoking in condemned houses or buildings. The adults built businesses and homes and families in the comfort of a bustling town full of life and opportunity.

There is no reason to move now. The ghostly apparitions of former life fell to the background as new life breathed in the streets. Old factories, once falling to the tread of time, now steamed with new life. Houses filled with noise and life and the schools spat out students looking for new life, problems to solve, and ways to make their community better.

The lights no longer fade from dreamer's eyes. They only burn brighter now. They burn stronger now.

No one needed to move anymore.

They have places to go now. They have dreams to fulfill now. And they have a community to build now.

This is the town where I grew up. The town where my father fell in love with my mother. Where I returned to care for my mother. Where I fell in love with the man who makes me happy. Where I found the strength to move on and find a new dream.

It sucked me back, like a black hole, but I escaped it. I left the dark memories behind. I found new life by leaving my town behind.

He came and found me. I cannot say he saved me. I can say that we saved each other. We found new life together there before finding a new life somewhere else. Everything changed when he came and I could not be more grateful for it.

I sit here, on the little porch we have, and rock our child. The child we worked so hard to have. The child we wanted more than life itself. The child we call our little miracle every single day.

He has his brothers and sisters, the others who call our house home, but he is ours. They are ours too but in a different way. They do not look like us and some of them do not even sound like us but they are all ours. They share our home, if not our blood, and they call us family.

I can only say now that I am who I was always meant to be. This is who I am meant to be.


End file.
